TUNIS - Tunisia's parliament has adopted a law criminalising racist speech, incitement to hatred and discrimination, in a vote hailed as a historic first in a country with a significant black minority. The legislation was approved on Tuesday night after a lengthy debate with 125 members of parliament voting for it, one against and five abstaining. "This is a very important turning point in the history of Tunisia, equivalent to the abolition of slavery," said Messaoud Romdhani, head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. Slavery was abolished in the North African country when it was a beylik, or vassal of the Ottoman empire, in 1846.