When the Freedom and Justice party won the biggest share of seats in Egypt’s first democratic parliamentary elections in January, it sought to allay fears of an Islamist takeover. “All political forces and intellectuals ... regardless of their political and religious allegiances,” would be involved in drafting a new constitution, it said. By its own definition the process now under way is flawed.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is only the latest of several institutions to boycott the committee that will define the principles to guide post-revolutionary Egypt, including the role of Islam and minority rights. Liberal parties and even Egypt’s top Islamic authority, al-Azhar, have pulled out in protest at the lack of diversity in this panel, chosen by an alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm and the hardline Salafists. Concerns are amplified by the Muslim Brotherhood’s U-turn last weekend on its promise not to field a presidential candidate. The move has sparked fears of an Islamist power grab.
The constitutional committee is almost entirely male and overwhelmingly Islamist. Women, who account for just over half the population, and Christians, at about 10 per cent, were allocated a combined total of 10 seats in the 100 strong group. There are no representatives of human rights groups, no activists for women’s rights, no voices from ethnic populations such as Nubians or the Sinai community. Parliament has even chosen to ignore the country’s constitutional and legal experts, opting instead for a few largely unknown Islamist academics. The boycott makes the panel even less representative than it was at the start.