Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a part of the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares maritime borders with Italy and Malta to the north and east. It features the archaeological sites of Carthage dating back to the 9th century BC, as well as the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Known for its ancient architecture, souks, and blue coasts, it covers 163,610 km2 (63,170 sq mi), and has a population of 12.1 million. It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert; much of its remaining territory is arable land. Its 1,300 km (810 mi) of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin. Tunisia is home to Africa's northernmost point, Cape Angela. Located on the northeastern coast, Tunis is the capital and largest city of the country, which is itself named after Tunis. The official language of Tunisia is Modern Standard Arabic. The vast majority of Tunisia's population is Arab and Muslim. Vernacular Tunisian Arabic is the most spoken, and French also serves as an administrative and educational language in some contexts, but it has no official status.
Islam in France is a minority faith. Muslims are estimated to represent around 4% of the nation's population as per Statista and Le Monde, although Insee claims that in metropolitan France this percentage can reach 10%. After conquering much of the Iberian peninsula, the Umayyad Muslim forces invaded modern day southern France, but were defeated by the Frankish Christian army led by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, thus preventing the possible Islamisation of Western Europe. During a later incursion, Muslims established the fortress Fraxinetum. France's Muslim population grew starting in the second half of the 20th century, following immigration from former French colonies and protectorates in Africa and the Middle East.
The Grand Mosque of Paris, also known as the Great Mosque of Paris or simply the Paris Mosque, is located in the 5th arrondissement and is one of the largest mosques in France. There are prayer rooms, an outdoor garden, a small library, a gift shop, along with a cafe and restaurant. In all, the mosque plays an important role in promoting the visibility of Islam and Muslims in France. It is the oldest mosque in Metropolitan France.
An Islamist insurgency is taking place in the Maghreb region of North Africa, followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.
A Jund al-Haqq organization claimed in 1988 and 1989 from Beirut a kidnapping in Lebanon, three assassinations in Brussels, a murder in Bangkok and an attempted murder in Karachi. The precise nature of this group was never clearly elucidated, nor even the reality of its existence. At the time, its actions were attributed to the Abu Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council. In February 2008, the three Brussels assassinations were attributed by Moroccan officials to an alleged network led by the Belgian-Moroccan Abdelkader Belliraj whose confessions were obtained by torture, thence subject to caution.
Richard Prasquier is a French cardiologist and Jewish leader. He served as president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) from 2007 to 2013.
The French ban on face covering is the result of an act of parliament passed in 2010 banning the wearing of face-covering headgear, including masks, helmets, balaclavas, niqābs and other veils covering the face, and full body costumes and zentais in public places, except under specified circumstances. This ban does not apply to the hijab, as it does not cover the face. The ban does apply to the burqa, a full-body covering, if it covers the face. In April 2011, France became the first European country to impose a ban on full-face veils in public areas.
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.
The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution began in 1940, and culminated in deportations of Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland. The deportation started in 1942 and lasted until July 1944. Of the 340,000 Jews living in metropolitan/continental France in 1940, more than 75,000 were deported to death camps, where about 72,500 were murdered.
The Turks in Tunisia, also known as Turco-Tunisians and Tunisian Turks, are ethnic Turks who constitute one of the minority groups in Tunisia.
Abdelkader Ben Ghabrit, commonly known as Si Kaddour Benghabrit was an Algerian religious leader, translator and interpreter who worked for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the first rector of the Great Mosque of Paris.
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is a French-Algerian imam. An openly gay Muslim, Zahed is the founder of an Islamic prayer room in Paris, France, with the goal of accommodating the LGBT and feminist Muslim communities. He also founded the LGBT Muslim association HM2F, and manages the Calem Institute in Marseille.
The 1987 Tunisian coup d'état involved the bloodless ousting of the aging President of Tunisia Habib Bourguiba on 7 November 1987, and his replacement as President by his recently appointed Prime Minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The action was justified by reference to Bourguiba's failing health and Article 57 of the country's constitution. Reports later surfaced to indicate that the Italian intelligence services had been involved in planning it.
Francis Kalifat is a French businessman and philanthropist. He is the president-elect of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France, the umbrella organization for Jewish organisations in France.
On 6 August 2016, a man attacked two policewomen with a machete in Charleroi, Belgium, before being shot dead by another police officer.
The Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities or ATSM is a Tunisian Non-governmental organization fighting for minority rights, targeting antisemitism in particular.
Mahmoud Dicko is a Malian Salafi imam from the Tombouctou Region who chaired the High Islamic Council of Mali from January 2008 to April 2019.
The Study Mission on the Spoliation of Jews in France, also known as the Mission Mattéoli, was set up in March 1997 by Alain Juppé, then Prime Minister, and chaired by Jean Mattéoli.
Abdelkader Mesli was an Algerian Sunni imam and resistance member during the Second World War. Through his actions at the Grand Mosque of Paris, at the Fort du Hâ, and within the Army Resistance Organization (ORA), he contributed to the rescue of several hundred Jewish individuals from the Holocaust. He also extended assistance to escaped African soldiers. Having survived Dachau, he returned to France after the war but passed away in relative obscurity.
Yonathan Arfi is a French CEO and activist. A member of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France since 2002, he was elected as vice-president on 4 February 2014, and ran for president in 2022. On 26 June 2022, he succeeded Francis Kalifat as president of the CRIF.
