Islam and Liberty: The Historical Misunderstanding »

Mohamed Charfi is professor emeritus in law at the University of Tunis and a representative of the Tunisian democratic, secular opposition. He was president of the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights, and served as Tunisia's minister of education from 1989-1994.

Mohammed Charfi tackles the central question facing all Arab-Muslim nations: is Islam compatible with contemporary notions of democracy, legality and the State? A century ago, thinkers like Abdoh and Tahar Haddad called for an approach to religion compatible with modern realities, yet the twenty-first century is witnessing a sad regression in the independence of the law from holy writ. Charfi advocates a profound revision of Islamic thought. He stresses the importance of education, which from the 1970's onwards has been left in the hands of propagandists whose identity and source of authority is bound up with a particular interpretation of Islam.