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