“Halal meat will be banned starting from July 2021!!!” This message was issued by the Great Mosques of Paris, Lyon and Evry, which criticized the French government for banning the halal method of animal slaughter. The Islamic slaughter rite – like the Kosher one – prohibits stunning before death and requires the butcher to kill the animal by swiftly slitting its throat with a single slash to the neck. The announcement received massive media coverage and had a strong impact on the French Muslim minority.
As electoral period draws to a close, Tunisia and international partners address immigration, trafficking, and terrorism
Integral to Tunisia’s internal security operations is its cooperation with foreign governments. Partnerships with Italy, France, and the United States address national security as well as regional security issues including immigration, trafficking, and terrorism. The operations of G8 Leader countries in the MENA region are (unofficially but observably) distinctive and complementary: Italy oversees migration in the Mediterranean; France via the Ministry of the Interior focuses on national security and the police, and the United States Department of Defense is engaged in a «war on terrorism.»
South to North and the Sea in Between: Politics of Migration in the Mediterannean
At the beginning of the month, Journalist Farhat Othman criticized the Italian Interior Minister’s visit to Tunisia, observing that an offering of patrol boats, in the guise of support against terrorism and contraband, could only be intended for support against clandestine immigration since it consists of «patrol vessels mandanted by the cooperation agreement linking Tunisia and Italy since 2011 after the massive wave of Tunisians to Italy.» As if to provide a caricature of European politicans obsessed by preserving EU security, Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a cheering crowd of supporters in Nice earlier this week, calling for the «refounding» of the Schengen Area and «a real immigration policy to put an end to social tourism in our country.»
Interventionism, Systematic Alignment Instill Political Divisiveness – and No Resolve for Gaza
In Tunisia, there is a great deal of skepticism regarding the competency and «responsible governance» of the interim government in juxtaposition with Tunisia’s international image as the ‘sole democracy in the Arab world’ as citizens sense that technocrats and politicians are incapable of rising above their own political and electoral trajectories to synchronise a unified, coordinated national response to aggression that is tantamount to a Palestinian holocaust.
Visas, Immigration, Exchange Programs: US Promises and Tunisian Civil Society
The nature of immigration policy and visa procedures for Tunisians who wish to travel to the United States to take advantage of academic and professional exchange opportunities reflects the degree of authenticity of US rhetoric for cooperation, partnership, and collaboration at the civil society level.
Tunisia: Video message to Barack Obama
We all remember what the French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared, in his victory speech, shortly after winning the French presidential election in 2007: “I want to issue a call to everyone in the world who believes in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, humanism, to all those who are persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships […] I want to tell them that it will be France’s pride and its duty to be at their side.
Tunisie : Les droits de l’homme tunisien torturent Sarko
« L’espace des libertés progresse. » C’était le jugement de Sarko en visite à Tunis, en avril dernier. Visiblement, notre […]
Borhane Bsaies ou L’avocat du diable
Ecrit et publié sur Nawaat par Hannibal LeCarthaginois : Les critiques de Bsaies ne visent que défendre Ben Ali. S’imposant comme l’avocat du diable cet ex militant étudiant converti en mercenaire dévoile, ou plutôt prétend dévoiler, « l’autre dimension » de la délégation. N’ayant point d’argument pour défendre son président, il préfère contre-attaquer et soustraire toute légitimité […]
Union for Mediterranean: a way to bypass human rights?
(Brussels, 11 July) The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) initiative, to be endorsed on 13 July, may lead to a […]
Press Freedom Groups Raise Tunisian Concerns With French President
A coalition of international press freedom organisations has asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to underestimate human rights violations in […]