Egyptian Constitution and Sharia

We now have a new government in Egypt and a new dictator.  Morsi has moved from a "reformer" to one who now anoints himself with dictatorial powers and passes legislation that protects him and his cronies from any prosecution. Nice trick, if you can get it done and apparently he has.

He has proposed a new Constitution that makes Sharia  a main ingredient of the document, however, this has caused the masses to take to the streets in protest. We do not know the outcome, however, the military seems to be running interference between the protesters and those supporting Morsi which could be a moderating influence.

Whether the Constitution passes with the Sharia provisions in place will be dependent upon the people and Morsi. We would hope that the it would not. 

Conservative Tom

No, It’s Not the Same Sharia Provision as in the Old Egyptian Constitution

December 4, 2012 - 2:04 pm - by Andrew C. McCarthy

 

I’ve now been in a few debates about Egypt’s new draft constitution, which will be put to a vote next week — in fact, I debated Abbas Barzegar, an assistant professor of Islam at Georgia State University, on Sean Hannity’s radio show on Monday. As one would easily predict, it has become a key talking point of the constitution’s Islamist supporters that, in so far as concerns sharia (Islam’s societal framework and legal code), the new constitution marks no change. The new draft simply repeats, it is said, the old Sadat/Mubarak-era constitution’s stipulation that the “principles of sharia” govern.

This is an absurd claim. Of course, that won’t stop them from trying to make it fly … or stop the Western media, in the throes of spring fever, from repeating their assertions.

The new constitution’s provisions have been well summarized by Professor Rubin, whose post — which addresses this subject in addition to several other important ones — I highly recommend. I want to begin by stepping outside the substance of the constitution, though. Note that the non-Islamist factions resigned from the constituent assembly (the body tasked with drafting the new constitution) in explicit protest over its transparent Islamist character. Does anyone really think this would have happened if the new constitution were not a sharp turn toward Islamic supremacism and its attendant oppression of women, religious minorities, homosexuals, and other non-Islamists?

Now, back to substance. Yes, article 2 of the draft repeats the former constitution’s command that “Principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation.” This repetition leads Islamists and their apologists to contend that adherence to sharia won’t be any more strict under Islamist rule than it was during Mubarak’s reign — notwithstanding that right now, even before the new constitution has been formally adopted, there is already far more sharia governance (and oppression) than there was before the old regime fell.

In reality, the new constitution’s repetition of article 2  is just the beginning of the discussion, not, as the Muslim Brotherhood’s apologists would have it, the end. From the premise of sharia principles as the core, the new constitution proceeds with three radical innovations.

First is the way the new constitution fleshes out what is meant by “principles.” The term will be governed by the four classical schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. These four schools consider virtually all questions to have been settled a millennium ago. This means Islamic reformers and modernizers will be foreclosed from effecting any softening of classical sharia’s adhesive provisions. To be sure, the Brotherhood may not reinstate the stoning of adulterers and other cruel hudud penalties tomorrow. But that will be based on apolitical calculation — as my friend David Goldman has observed, Egypt is a financial basket case and can’t afford to give irrevocable offense to its Western white knights (assuming they are still capable of being offended by anything Islamists do). The point is that there will be no legal retreat on classical sharia, and gradually it will become ever more repressive.

That is also the guaranteed outcome of the second innovation: The new constitution appoints al-Azhar University, the ancient seat of Sunni learning, as the final arbiter of what sharia means. This thrusts the scholars of that institution (whose alumni include Omar Abdel Rahman, the Blind Sheik of World Trade Center bombing fame, and Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s top jurist) into the full range of Egyptian life and affairs, since there is no aspect of human endeavor that sharia would not control.

Finally, there is Article 81, which follows the disingenuous scheme Islamists have previously adopted in the Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (also known as the “Cairo Declaration“) and in the constitutions of such other new “Islamic democracies” as Afghanistan and Iraq. That is, after a few soothing lines about how individual “rights and freedoms” are sacrosanct, not “subject to disruption or detraction,” the constitution goes on to say: “Such rights and freedoms shall be practiced in a manner not conflicting with the principles pertaining to State and society included in Part I of this Constitution.” And what are those “principles” in the “State and Society” section of the draft? Why, they are the ones that say principles of sharia govern all legislation — again, “principles” as construed by al-Azhar, using the ancient interpretations of the four classical Sunni schools of jurisprudence. Bottom line: Egyptians have only the rights and freedoms permitted under sharia.

When all the verbal camouflage is swept away, the new constitution delivers on what Mohamed Morsi, during the Egyptian presidential campaign, promised he would deliver: “The sharia, then the sharia, and finally the sharia.” As the now-dictator elaborated at the rally on the eve of the election (in a speech translated by MEMRI):

This nation will enjoy blessing and revival only through the Islamic sharia. I take an oath before Allah and before you all that regardless of the actual text [of the constitution]. … Allah willing, the text will truly reflect [the sharia], as will be agreed upon by the Egyptian people, by the Islamic scholars, and by legal and constitutional experts…. Rejoice and rest assured that this people will not accept a text that does not reflect the true meaning of the Islamic sharia as a text to be implemented and as a platform. The people will not agree to anything else.

The apologists who don’t see that as a change from Mubarak days are the same ones telling you that Morsi is a “moderate” and that the Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization.

Morsi: Hero or More Of The Same

We, the United States are such goofs!  How in the bloody heck can we support Egyptian President Morsi when we know (or should know) that he is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood which is totally invested in the destruction of Israel and the Islamization of the world. On top of that,  Morsi had passed laws that make his actions and the actions of both houses of their government above the law.  Yup, this is a democracy in action. Right!!

The Egyptian people should throw these bums out and put in real patriots who will establish a true democracy, or better yet a Constitutionally limited Republic.  We could even lend them a copy of our Constitution, it sure has worked for 225 years!

But, they will not establish a democracy or a republic. They are used to crisis, dictators and no civil rights. Something that would work in other parts of the world just will not work in Egypt.

Morsi will either double down on  his power grab or be thrown out. We would bet it is the prior. Is this the sort of man that we should be relying upon to help negotiate Mideast Peace?  We believe the answer is no.  However, now that the Obama Administration has honored his "statemanship" they cannot drop him. We simply will  go from Mubarak to Morsi and the Egyptians will see no difference.

The big change will be that now the Muslim Brotherhood has been taken into the inner sanctums of the world power block. They now can sit at the table with the "big boys", a place where no other Egyptian leader has been able attain.  Will this make them more responsible or increase their opinion that Islam is on the march? The latter is the answer.  This is not good for the non-Islamic world.

Conservative Tom

Egypt Erupts as Muslim Brotherhood Seizes Power

P. David Hornik - FrontPage Magazine,  November 26th, 2012

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi can at least get a prize for brazenness. Just last Wednesday he was being praised by the Obama administration for his “practical” role in working out a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. “This was somebody focused on solving problems,” a “senior administration official” admiringly told the New York Times.

The very next day, Thursday, Morsi engaged in a different kind of “problem solving”—taking steps to steamroll the opposition and move a big step closer to totalitarian rule for himself and his Muslim Brotherhood.

A decree issued by Morsi on that day shields his decisions from judicial review and effectively puts him beyond the law. It gives the same kind of protection to the lower house of parliament—which is dominated by Islamists who are writing Egypt’s new constitution and had been facing legal challenges; and similarly insulates the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.

Morsi also ordered retrials of officials from the previous Mubarak regime who were charged with violence in putting down the 2011 Tahrir Square-centered rebellion—including the 84-year-old Mubarak himself, even though he was already sentenced to life in prison.

Since Egyptians learned of the decree on Friday morning, the country has erupted in a way not seen since the 2011 revolt itself.

On Friday violent protests rocked Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, and Suez. By Saturday Egypt’s judicial establishment was in an uproar. Reuters reported that “the Judges’ Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the ‘downfall of the regime’ – the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year….”

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called Morsi a “dictator impos[ing] the most oppressive, abhorrent measures” and said he was “waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland did come through with a statement. Far from condemning Morsi so soon after Washington had elevated him to statesman, it called for “a constitution that includes checks and balances, and respects fundamental freedoms, individual rights, and the rule of law consistent with Egypt’s international commitments”—in other words, replete with the very delusions that had led the administration to view the Muslim Brotherhood as a democratic force in the first place.

Things were no quieter on Sunday. Egypt’s stock market plunged by almost 10 percent—the worst since the heyday of the anti-Mubarak uprising in February last year. AP reported that hundreds of protesters clashed with police in…Tahrir Square, marking the third day of violence sparked by…Morsi’s decision to grant himself extensive new powers…. Riot police used tear gas as protesters hurled rocks toward them in the center of the square….

With both opposition groups and the Muslim Brotherhood calling for massive rallies on Tuesday, a situation that could spin out of control, a clearly alarmed Morsi backtracked somewhat, issuing a statement that last week’s decree was of a “temporary nature” and “not meant to concentrate powers,” claiming a commitment to an “inclusive democratic dialogue.”

The next few days will tell whether, despite Morsi’s effort to calm the storm, Egypt is on the brink of a revolt somewhat analogous to the abortive 2009 revolt against the Islamist regime in Tehran. At that time President Barack Obama committed one of the gravest failures of his first term by not backing the antiregime forces. Considering how politically invested Washington is in Morsi and the Brotherhood, there is not much ground for optimism—should a comparable situation take shape—this time around either.

Still, whatever the degree of Western support or lack of support, those still hoping for a Middle East not entirely swept away by radicalism can only be encouraged by the powerful anti-Morsi, anti-Brotherhood winds now blowing in Egypt.