Egypt’s interim president, Judge Adli Mansour, – who was appointed by the military in July – announced the names of the 50 members that are to form part of the committee tasked with amending the Islamist-dominated Constitution.
The committee will have 60 days to discuss the amendments.
The Muslim Brotherhood managed to get the Constitution approved last November but the content is strongly criticised by the liberal opposition and representatives of Christians Churches who stopped the work they were doing for the committee in protest against the radical ideology of the Islamists. The generals held a referendum on the text after its revision.
The committee – which is made up of representatives of political parties, religious communities and confessions - announced that three of its members are Christians: Bishop Paul, of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Tanta, the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Giza, Antonious Aziz Mina and the President of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, Safwat El-Bayyady.
The committee also has three representatives from al-Azhar University (including Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawky Allam) and two Islamist figures: Kamal El-Helbawy, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who has disagreed with the movement for a while and Bassam El-Zarqa, Vice-President of the Salafist Nour party.
Bassam El-Zarqa is sending out early signs of potential further clashes over Sharia law. Indeed, Nour has threatened to boycott the committee’s work, claiming the group is dominated “by leftist forces”. The party has already announced it intends to uphold article 219, the point most hotly contested by Christians because the text drafted by the Muslim Brotherhood has given more weight to Sharia law in the country.
Article 2 of the previous Constitution - which dates back to the Sadat era – referred to Sharia law as the main source of legislation in Egypt. But this was considered too vague by Islamists, so article 219 was inserted into the text approved in 2012. This article stressed the link between State law and Islamic law.
“The principles of Sharia law include commonly accepted interpretations of it, the foundations, jurisprudential rules and sources passed down by the Sunnah and al-Gama'a schools,” the current text reads. The law as described here is far more binding and explicitly targets Shiites as well, who do not follow the Islamic doctrines mentioned.
One of the amendments proposed by the committee of ten experts which drafted the text which the 50-meber committee will now debate on, is the abrogation of article 219 and a return to a more generic form of Islamic law.
This is why Salafists have protested. But the military and the transitional government believe it is essential to keep Nour in the Constitutional revision process (partly to prevent friction with Saudi Arabia which has openly sided against ousted President Mohammed Morsi). So the debate surrounding Sharia law appears far from over and it looks like it will be the real litmus test for judging Egypt’s new path.