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| Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi symbolically taking oath in Tahrir |
After latest events of June 2012, when SCAF (Supreme
Council of Armed Forces) dissolved People’s Assembly (the lower house of
Egypt’s parliament) following the ruling of High Constitutional Court, the
situation with writing Egypt’s new constitution became more tense. The powers
represented in Constitutional Assembly couldn’t reach consensus, and the
battles over the seats and representation of Islamist and non-Islamist parties and
boycotting the meetings of assembly by some of its members provoked the strong reaction
of SCAF. The members of current Constitutional Assembly received SCAF’s
ultimatum: either they come to agreement about the appointing the members of
the constitutional panel and start to work on drafting the future Constitution
or SCAF will interfere in the process and dissolve the current assembly,
appointing the new one. Under such circumstances Constitutional Assemble
finally resumed its work this month, but the process of drafting the new
Constitution doesn’t go smooth, as Islamist and non-Islamist powers are again
at odds over some basic issues of the future highest document of the state.
Several arguable issues are still on table, as Salafists (Al-Nour and Asala parties) became more active again in efforts aimed at improving their radical and ultra-conservative view of Islam in Egypt’s new constitution. The members of those parties are trying to impose the changes to the three first articles of Egypt’s 1971 Constitution, which define the nature and the main principles of the state.
As a result the Constitutional Assembly finally
finished the drafting of the Article 1 of the new Constitution on 11 July 2012.
This article outlines the main principles of the state and the nature of the
country, and now this article states following: “The Arab Republic of Egypt is
a democratic, Shura-based (consultative), constitutional and modern state based
on separation of powers and the principle of citizenship. It is a part of Arabic
and Islamic nations and is connected to the African continent”. The addition
“Shura” (which means “advisory”, “consultative”) was proposed by Salafist
members and it was agreed upon all another members of Constitutional Assembly.
It means that all authorities and governing bodies may participate in state’s
political life and constitutional operations, so any individual political force
cannot monopolize the power.
Another agreement was reached over the Article 2
concerning Shari’a Law (Islamic Law), which was one of the main points of
argues since the formation of the first Constitutional Assembly. Now the text
of Article 2 is: “Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is official
language. The principles of Islamic Shari’a are the main source of legislation,
the honorable Al-Azhar is the final source of its interpretation, and the
proponents of Christianity and Judaism have the right to refer to their own
doctrines when it comes to personal law and performing their religion affairs
and selecting their spiritual leaders”. There were some argues over this
article, as Salafists wanted the words “the principles of Shari’a Law” to be
removed, because they are sure that the Shari’a Law, not just its principles,
should be the main source of legislation. From the point of view of Salafists,
who represent the hard line of Islam, it’s a necessary step which will prevent
Egypt of becoming secular state. So they want that the Article 2 sounds
“Shari’a Law is the main source of legislation in Egypt”, not its principles. But
those proposals met a lot of criticism from liberal and secular forces and from
the representatives of Al-Azhar as well. Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb
made a statement that they will not accept any changing and phrasing of the
text of Article 2 of 1971 Constitution, so they are against editing of this
article. It has to remain unchanged and any laws and rulings that will violate
it and principles of Shari’a in Article 2 will be considered unconstitutional
by HCC (High Constitutional Court). It is worth mentioning here that some
Salafist members were against this phrasing too. Secularists and liberals
joined this dispute and insisted that there’re must be no changing of the text
of this article to save the secular nature of Egyptian state in the new
Constitution. Most of the representatives of Muslim Brotherhood said they see
no need in editing the Article 2, so the agreement over it was finally made.
| Egyptian Constitution |
The process of editing the text of Article 3 was
arguable too, as Salafist were trying to have stronger impact on it, but the
changes they proposed weren’t approved, and the final text of the Article 3 is:
“Sovereignty is for people alone and the people are the source of authority.
The people shall exercise and protect this sovereignty, safeguard national
unity in a manner specified in the Constitution”. The Salafist members proposed
to change one important aspect of the article removing the word “people” and
changing it to “God”, so the article could state that “Sovereignty is for God
and it’s the source of authority”. It was met with serious disputes and was
strongly opposed by secular and liberal forces, because they saw in it a threat
to the secular nature of the country and a foundation of a theocratic state.
Muslim Brotherhood didn’t see the necessity in changing the current text of
Article 3 to satisfy Salafists too, so those changes were rejected, as it is
enough that it is already declared that Islam is the state religion.
The Constitutional Assembly also finalized the article
relating to freedom of press and expression, and according to the new
constitution the freedom of press is guaranteed except in times of war. There
are also agreements reached concerning some matters of governing system, such
as President’s duties and powers and the role of armed forces. Thus the
President considers being the head of state and of the armed forces and has the
right to appoint the minister of defense. But armed forces will save some of
its privileges and the military budget will remain private and can be discussed
only during the closed sessions of parliament. Another agreement was also
reached by the members of the assembly is that President can declare war only
after consultation and with approval of the armed forces and parliament. As for
Al-Azhar it will remain the nation’s highest Islamic authority and is
independent.
So it is worth mentioning that despite some
disagreements and disputes the consensus among the members of the Constituent
Assembly seems to be finally reached, and most of the texts formulated and
discussed by the panel are agreed too. Egypt has the long history of
administrative and legislative codes, its Constitution has passed a long period
of evolution, and it is very important on this current stage to remember the
goals and demands of January 25 Revolution which created the possibility of
rewriting the Constitution according to the new principles. The future Egypt’s
Constitution should focus on democracy, equality and human rights and not
religious identity, military budget and the issues like that, as those issues
are temporally and fluid, and the Constitution is the document defining the
nature and life of the state for the next generations to come, and Egyptians
deserve the better future for them.
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