http://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/new-constitution-paves-way-islamic-%E2%80%98church-versus-statehttp://www.egyptindependent.com/opinion/new-constitution-paves-way-islamic-%E2%80%98church-versus-state
When the Muslim Brotherhood was counted among the opposition, before
the 25 January revolution, the group took part in several discussions
with civil political forces and human rights organizations, both
domestic and international, to present political Islam’s view of
democracy, the rotation of power and human rights. Yet the wheels of the
debate continued to spin, as a precaution against that hypothetical
moment in which the Islamic current would reach the seat of power and
the apprehensions of civil political forces would be borne out: the
quashing, by democratic means, of the dream of a democratic transition
and respect for human rights.
It now looks like the old fears of many political forces and human
rights groups are on the verge of being realized, as evidenced by the
most recent version of the Constituent Assembly’s chapter on public
rights, liberties, and duties, published on the assembly’s official
website. This is clear in the language used in the articles on freedom
of press, expression, and belief — a set of liberties that constitute
the foundation for any democratic society, which are only infringed or
restricted by autocratic or authoritarian regimes. It is even clearer in
the declared desire to grant the Islamic religious establishment a
privileged status in the constitution.
The Constituent Assembly has planted several mines in the draft
constitution that will explode in all our faces, threatening to
exacerbate and renew sectarian tensions. They have planted the seeds of a
religious state in democratic guise and use citizenship in the
constitution as a cover for religious discrimination. This concept of
citizenship is not based on full equality, but it places some citizens
above others depending on what is written in the slot for religion on
official identity documents.
The draft chapter on rights and liberties contains no reference to
international human rights norms, a source of authority that would
guarantee an interpretation of articles on rights and liberties without
weakening them and while upholding them for all citizens. In addition,
the Constituent Assembly restricts the freedom of belief, stating,
“Freedom of belief and the exercise of religious rites are protected and
the state upholds the freedom to establish houses of worship for the
exercise of rites of the monotheistic religions, as elaborated in the
law and in a way that does not violate the public order.” This text
infringes on the very heart of freedom of belief and conscience,
discriminating between citizens on the basis of religion and undermining
the right of equal citizenship by limiting the right to worship to
adherents of the Abrahamic religions. The text also contradicts another
article in the same draft constitution that stipulates that citizens are
equal before the law and cannot be discriminated against on the basis
of religion or belief.
In fact, the language restricting freedom of belief does not come as a
surprise. Anyone who has read the platforms of the Islamist parties,
which constitute a majority of the Constituent Assembly, will find that
they all agree that the exercise of religious rights should be
guaranteed only to adherents of the three monotheistic religions. It is
clear that they all embrace the same religious vision and seek to impose
it on all of society, even if this profoundly subverts the foundation
of equality and the right to citizenship and violates freedom of belief.
Even if we assume that the Constituent Assembly revised its chapter
on rights and liberties in accordance with international human rights
standards and the observations of Egyptian human rights groups, the
newly formulated status of Islamic law in the constitution empties it of
any genuine guarantees for rights and liberties and is incompatible
with the structure of the modern democratic state. Press coverage of the
chapter on the basic components of the state reports that Al-Azhar has
become the final interpreter of Islamic Sharia in accordance with Sunni
Islam. The intention to adopt this stipulation in the constitution has
been confirmed by statements of several members of the Constituent
Assembly as well as leaders of the venerable Islamic religious
institution.
The irony is that Al-Azhar, which liberal parties hoped would
confront attempts by Islamists and their parties when drafting
constitutional articles that undermine rights and liberties, has become
the Trojan Horse in the draft constitution, created by Islamist groups
themselves.
These constitutional provisions will place the religious
establishment, which is still not free of executive intervention, above
the elected parliament and create a type of clergy that is alien to
Islam. While busy searching for a way to Islamize the constitution,
Islamists may ultimately issue an un-Islamic constitution, one that
violates the essence of Islam, in which, as we know, adherents are free
from submitting to such religious clergy. Interestingly, political
Islamists, in response to criticism from secularists, have repeated over
decades that Islam does not recognize theocracy, claiming that the
conflict that erupted centuries ago between the church and state in
Europe could not happen in an Islamic state. But it seems they are now
sowing the seeds of just such a conflict in the draft constitution,
which is expected to be put to a public referendum in a few weeks.
Ragab Saad is a researcher at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
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