This is not the time or the place to delve into the details of the country’s new constitution. “However, one country, the Republic of Tunisia, has recently demonstrated that it is possible. Consequently, when those parties are negotiating the terms of a constitution with stakeholders who demand the separation of religion and state, it is difficult to reach a consensus on the supreme law. Because of the way religious parties are structured, they support the principle that religion and state are inseparable. “…I would like to take a moment to mention a particular difficulty the Muslim world is grappling with. This shows that, today, civil societies’ demand for new constitutional structures has become inevitable. Of these 49 countries, 25% have a Muslim majority. In other words, this movement affects a quarter of the member states of the United Nations. His Highness the Aga Khan at the Parliament of Canada “You may be surprised to learn that 37 countries throughout the world have adopted a new constitution in the past 10 years and that 12 countries are in the later stages of modernizing their constitutions, which gives us a total of 49 countries. The following excerpts are from an address delivered by His Highness the Aga Khan, 49th Hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, to both Houses of Parliament in the House of Commons Chamber, Ottawa, on Thursday, February 27, 2014.
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