A Look at Egypt's Draft Constitution
Egypt's constituent assembly has quietly produced another constituional draft over the weekend. Bassem Sabry outlines the document's changes, which include apparent limitations on the scope of religious freedoms. Neither Salafists nor liberals are pleased with the draft, but its ambiguity will make it tough to challenge, he writes.
After much hype, we were finally introduced a bit more than a week ago to the official first draft of Egypt's post-revolution constitution.
No, wait. That is actually sort of incorrect. After that draft was presented to media and found its way all over news websites, the constituent assembly quietly introduced another draft over the weekend, to the reported surprise and dismay of some of the assembly's members.
The differences between the drafts are anything but negligible. The first draft, unlike the latter, left certain articles blank, with placeholders stating they were "subject to [further] debate." Entire chapters were also missing in the first draft, while certain articles were changed between the drafts in syntax and positioning, most prominently the controversial text pertaining to freedom of religious belief.
Before I proceed, for the purposes of this article, do note that I am not a constitutional expert by any means, but that I am rather channeling my personal walkthrough as well as common established critiques.
