A GROWING TUNISIAN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY TREADS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TUNIS 002141 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG (HARRIS),DRL/IRF FOR COFSKY E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/26/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM TS SUBJECT: A GROWING TUNISIAN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY TREADS LIGHTLY AMID CONCERNS OF GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT REF: 2005 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT - TUNISIA Classified By: CDA David Ballard, for Reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (C//NOFORN) Summary: In recent interviews with Poloff, Tunisian and expatriate Christian leaders and Tunisian Christian converts described a steadily growing Tunisian Christian movement, in spite of prevalent social stigmas associated with Christianity. Through Christian TV and radio, missionary work and domestic proselytizing, hundreds of Tunisians have reportedly converted to Christianity in the past decade and currently attend church services or worship in groups in private homes. While some Tunisian Christians report GOT harassment and surveillance of the community, most say that the GOT monitors without significant interference, and that they practice their religion free from persecution. However, Tunisian Christian leaders worry that this hands-off policy may not last if the number of converts swells. Church leaders are concerned that continuing GOT unease with an expanding Christian community may result in increased levels and severity of GOT surveillance and harassment. End Summary. Overview -------------- ¶2. (C//NOFORN) Twelve Catholic churches, several Protestant churches and the Greek Orthodox church serve an estimated 2000 practicing Christians in Tunisia, although the number of resident Christians who do not attend Church services is approximately 25,000. While the large majority of Christians in Tunisia is expatriates, there is a small, but reportedly growing, number of Tunisian Christian converts. According to Church leaders, the population of Tunisian Christians ranges from 200-1,000, although no reliable survey of the population has been conducted. Conversions -------------- ¶3. (C//NOFORN) Christian leaders described several methods whereby Tunisians have converted to Christianity, including listening to Christian radio programs, watching Christian television, reading Arabic bibles, as the result of missionary work, and through personal relationships with Christian foreigners, both in Tunisia and abroad. One self-described "evangelical" Tunisian Christian leader, Kamel Fatmi, said he was first exposed to Christianity through Arabic-language Christian radio programming. Attracted by the announcer's description of Christian marriage, Fatmi began exploring the religion, eventually converting. Fatmi has since become one of the most active Tunisian Christian leaders, producing a Christian radio show, recorded in Tunisia in Tunisian Arabic and broadcast on Radio Monte Carlo. (NOTE: Radio Monte Carlo is a France-based station that has for years leased medium wave transmission time to the Christian group the Middle East Reformed Fellowship. Programming is broadcast through transmitters in Cyprus and Monaco throughout the Middle East. END NOTE) He said his radio productions have provoked no response from the GOT, and that he even broadcasts his phone numbers. Fatmi described a variety of Tunisian conversion stories, "from illiterate housewives to senior businessmen and government employees." He said Arabic-language Christian satellite programs were particularly effective in gaining converts, as to a lesser degree were missionaries operating clandestinely in Tunisia as teachers and professors. ¶4. (C//NOFORN) Another prominent Christian leader, Imed Dabbour said his path to Christianity began in the early eighties with exposure to Christian texts, and that he finally converted in the mid-nineties after studying in Switzerland, where he read the Bible and other texts in Arabic. Dabbour is an active member of a group of Tunisian Christians that meets regularly at the French Reform Church in Tunis. Dabbour said that although there are no figures, the number of Tunisian Christians is growing: "Each week we are seeing more, and unfamiliar, faces at worship." He claims that this is in no small part due to his and other Tunisian evangelicals' efforts to proselytize in Tunisia. Dabbour and Fatmi said that their evangelical community has in the past five years increased these efforts, and as a result have seen a rise in the number of recent converts. TUNIS 00002141 002 OF 003 (NOTE: Proselytization by non-Muslims is viewed as a threat to public order and is prohibited in Tunisia. End Note.) ¶5. (C//NOFORN) Aside from the nascent evangelical Protestant Tunisian movement, the Catholic church has, according to a local priest, converted approximately 100-200 Tunisians in recent years. There are, according to Church leaders, between 10,000-20,000 Catholics throughout Tunisia, primarily expatriates, including foreign women married to Tunisian men and a large number of Sub-Saharan African students who, along with staff of the African Development Bank, temporarily headquartered in Tunis, constitute an active part of the expatriate Christian community in Tunisia. The Catholic Church is forbidden from proselytizing in Tunisia by the 1967 Vatican/GOT agreement that established the official status of the Church in Tunisia. Catholic leaders feel that as long as their church is able to maintain a low profile in the country, and not request much of the GOT, the government will remain tolerant. Catholic leaders are very careful about social activities in Tunisia, because they fear that anything they say or do could potentially be perceived as proselytizing. Social Stigma -------------- ¶6. (C//NOFORN) Nearly all Tunisian Christians interviewed noted severe negative reactions from Tunisian colleagues, friends, and family after converting to Christianity. Stories of converts being forced from home, shunned at the workplace, and even beaten are not uncommon. One young female convert, according to an expatriate Christian pastor in Tunis (protect),was allegedly beaten, expelled from her home in Kairouan, and reported by her family to police who detained her at length for questioning. A common criticism levied against Tunisian converts by their Muslim countrymen is that Tunisians only convert to be better positioned to win foreign scholarships, or otherwise benefit from ties to Western, majority-Christian countries. Many foreign, Christian women married to Tunisian men are also reportedly discouraged from attending services by pressure put on them by their Tunisian in-laws. GOT Harassment -------------- ¶7. (C//NOFORN) Tunisian Christians allege that the GOT monitors their activities, and has on occasion harassed Tunisian Christian converts, including through overt surveillance and by detaining some Tunisian Christians for questioning. Dabbour and other leaders were clear that they did not feel that this harassment rose to the level of persecution: "They do not persecute us, because they do not acknowledge we exist." Dabbour expressed both contentment and dismay at the GOT's lack of acknowledgment of their community. While he claimed his evangelical community is largely allowed to practice its religious rites in peace, attempts at overtures to the GOT to regularize its status as a religious organization have been uniformly ignored. ¶8. (C//NOFORN) There are many reports of Tunisian Christians being brought in by police and Ministry of Interior Officials for questioning, being put under surveillance, suffering beaucratic difficulties such as long delays in passport issuance and renewal, and having Bibles confiscated. Some of those that have been detained for questioning said their interrogators were interested in the structure, organization, leadership and proselytizing tactics of the Christian community. One young Christian female reported being convoked to the Ministry of Interior several times and questioned at length about her involvement in the Christian community. At times, according to the young woman, the questioning became condemnatory and uncomfortable, as her interrogators asked personal and intimate questions. A young woman in Kairouan, a city in central Tunisia with a prominent place in Islamic history and still known for its Islamic character, was reportedly told by police that it was illegal to be a Christian, and threatened with imprisonment. A Catholic priest reported that it was difficult for Tunisians to regularly attend church, as frequent parishioners were "stopped and harassed" by police watching the church. However, other Tunisian church-goers reported no problems attending services. TUNIS 00002141 003 OF 003 ¶9. (C//NOFORN) Expatriate Christian pastors and priests are very sensitive to the GOT's interest and concern about Christianity in Tunisia. In the past, foreign Christian missionaries have reportedly had residency permits and visas revoked after raising their profile too high. One expatriate pastor working in Tunisia asked Poloff not to mention the Religious Freedom Report over the phone in case the GOT was bugging his phone, and would react negatively to his association with the U.S. Embassy. Tunisian Christian leaders also expressed concern about meeting with Poloff, although they willingly did so, noting that such meetings risked attracting negative attention from the GOT. These leaders also expressed concern that while they did not suffer persecution currently, the GOT might increase pressure on their community in the future, and sought assurances of assistance from post should GOT harassment increase in severity. ¶10. (C//NOFORN) While Ministry of Interior officials appear to be carefully watching the nascent Tunisian Christian movement, the official face of religious affairs in the GOT has displayed a striking ignorance of the issue. In an interview with Poloff, Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs Director General claimed that "there are no Tunisian Christians." When asked about reports of Tunisian converts being brought in for questioning, the DG denied that this was possible, as "Tunisia is Muslim, and all Tunisians are Muslim." Poloff also asked about pending applications from internationally based churches such as the Anglican Church and the French Reform Church to regularize their status in Tunisia for administrative and tax purposes. (Currently these churches do not have the requisite permits from the GOT recognizing their status that would allow them to, for example, open an account at a Tunisian bank). In response, the DG said that Tunisia had signed an agreement with the Vatican in 1967 that allowed the Catholic Church to operate in Tunisia. He claimed that this was an all-encompassing agreement that applied to the Christian establishment, and that the Protestant/Catholic divide was an "internal debate" that Catholics and Protestants had to settle themselves. Comment -------------- ¶11. (C//NOFORN) Just as the GOT downplays, or even almost denies, the presence of a minority ethnic Berber population in Tunisia, the Christian community is apparently also seen as a potential source of friction or confrontation that could upset the "balance" in Tunisian society. Consequently the GOT desires that their activities remain quiet and their numbers small. Although the GOT, specifically MOI, activities to this end do not, according to the Tunisian Christians interviewed, constitute persecution, if numbers of Christians continue to rise, the GOT may shift from "harassment" to more aggressive tactics in limiting the profile and reach of the Christian community. BALLARD