reports as of 2004 that the married interfaith couples to register the birth of their children and receive birth certificates if the mother was Christian and the father was Muslim and the parents tried to give their children non-Muslim names. Shi'ites in Tunisia have publicly disassociated themselves with the government in Tehran though. History The area that is now Tunisia came under the rule of Islam during the Umayyad Caliphate, (661–750/A.H.). The Umayyads founded the first Islamic city in North Africa, Kairouan where in 670 AD that the Mosque of Uqba, or the Great Mosque of Kairouan, was constructed;. This mosque is the oldest and most prestigious sanctuary in the Muslim West with the oldest standing minaret in the world; it is also considered a masterpiece of Islamic art and architecture. Zitouna mosque-university, was created around 703 AD, and became the center of Tunisia's Islamic scholarship and preaching. The Muslim Arab governors of Tunis founded the Aghlabid Dynasty, which ruled Tunisia, Tripolitania and eastern Algeria from 800 to 909. Its capital Kairuan became the most important centre of learning in the Maghreb, most notably in the field of Theology and Law. 1800–2011 Tunisia was influenced more heavily by Europe during the colonial era (it was a French protectorate and in 1945 had 144,000 colonialists living in it) and is considered the most westernized of Muslim North African states. Its first president, Habib Bourguiba, was committed to secularism, and dismantled University of Ez-Zitouna, replacing it with a faculty of Shari`a and Theology attached to the Tunis University in 1958. A Personal Status Code made law in 1956 prohibited polygamy, raised the age of marriage for girls to 17 years of age, made it easier for women to get a divorce, and banned forced marriages for minor girls. He also named a Grand Mufti of the Republic. His successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987–2011), created a Higher Islamic Council. He required that imams of mosques be appointed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The ministry often appointed members of the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally party, which also controlled the content of prayer services. A law passed in 1988 forbid all activities and meetings in mosques by people other than those appointed by the state. In 2004, the US State Department reported that people were sometimes interrogated just for associating or being seen in the street with practising Muslims. The government allowed