President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have campaigned heavily in favour of the draft document, which may define Egypt for years to come.
Opponents say it is poorly drafted and overly favours Islamists.
______________________
The BBC’s Jon Leyne reports from Cairo that the referendum is more than a vote on obscure clauses – it is about whether Egypt should be an Islamic country or a secular one.
______________________
The opposition National Salvation Front coalition has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to rig the vote.
However, the ballot, which is staggered over Saturday and a second day of voting in a week’s time, appears to be going smoothly with indications of a high turnout.
____________________________________
How did Coptic Pope Tawadros vote? Click on pic link for story.
Peanut Gallery: Morsi has decided to “bifurcate” the referendum on Egypt’s new constitution… setting the dates a week apart – Dec 15 & 22.
Andrew McCarthy details below why this works to Morsi’s advantage and why he and the Muslim Brotherhood are likely to prevail.
For those of you who would like a larger perspective on the “Arab Spring” and the “Islamic Supremacy” movement, I commend to you McCarthy ‘s book “Spring Fever” coming soon in paperback. McCarthy also writes regularly for PJMedia.com.
________________________________
Amid the continuing unrest in Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has now decided to bifurcate the referendum on the proposed sharia constitution. The voting will go forward as scheduled this Saturday, but only in ten governorates. The rest of the country will then vote the following Saturday, December 22.
________________________________
The Illusion of Islamic Democracy – Andrew McCarthy
________________________________
The whole point of Morsi’s presidency, the point of everything he’s done for the last five months, is the implementation of a sharia constitution. As I explain in Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (soon to be published in paperback), that is what Morsi and the Brotherhood promised to do during the campaign leading to his election as president. Sharia implementation is the goal behind his seizures of dictatorial powers: In August, Morsi awarded himself legislative authority Continue reading “Update on Egypt Vote: Divide and Conquer”→
Peanut Gallery: Does anyone doubt how this is going to end?
The same army that ran the show under Mubarak is now co-operating with Morsi. Since Nasser’s time, the military has been entwined in the economic/industrial complex of Egypt. There’s a lot of money, jobs and power at stake.
Morsi has made an unholy alliance with the military that will carry through the referendum at least. Beyond that who knows? But keep in mind, the military has the guns.
___________________________
The decree, published in the government gazette, takes effect on the eve of mass rival protests on the referendum and follows street clashes that have left seven people dead and hundreds injured.
It orders the military to fully co-operate with police “to preserve security and protect vital state institutions for a temporary period, up to the announcement of the results from the referendum,” according to a copy of the decree obtained by AFP.
The military, which ruled Egypt between the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and the election of Morsi in June this year, has sought to remain neutral in the political crisis.
Army tanks and troops have since Thursday deployed around Morsi’s presidential palace but they have not confronted thousands of protesters who have gathered there every night.
The opposition, made up of secular, liberal, left wing and Christian groups, has said it will escalate its protests to scupper the referendum.
It views the draft constitution, largely drafted by Morsi’s Islamist allies, as undermining human rights, the rights of women, religious minorities, and curtailing the independence of the judiciary.
Peanut Gallery: This article accurately describes the ideological struggle taking place in the streets of Cairo… between Islam and Secularism.
“Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.
“Bottom line, this is a struggle between ideologies — the Islamic ideology moving with a clear plan with public support, and the secularists,” said pro-Morsi demonstrator Khaled Omar, his head bandaged from Wednesday’s fighting. “We are defending Islam, which people want.”
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are “fast-tracking” the Islamification of Egypt… and they will not be denied. The article is well worth the read to see what’s at stake in Egypt. It does not bode well for Christian communities in the Middle East.
Please pray for Coptic Christians and the new Coptic Pope who are trying to navigate these treacherous waters.
______________________________
CAIRO – One of Egypt’s most prominent ultraconservative Muslim clerics had high praise for the country’s draft constitution. Speaking to fellow clerics, he said this was the charter they had long wanted, ensuring that laws and rights would be strictly subordinated to Islamic law.
Sheik Yasser Borhami
“This constitution has more complete restraints on rights than ever existed before in any Egyptian constitution,” Sheik Yasser Borhami assured the clerics. “This will not be a democracy that can allow what God forbids or forbid what God allows.”
The draft constitution that is now at the center of worsening political turmoil would empower Islamists to carry out the most widespread and strictest implementation of Islamic law that modern Egypt has seen. That authority rests on the three articles that explicitly mention Shariah, as well as obscure legal language buried in a number of other articles that few noticed during the charter’s drafting but that Islamists insisted on including.
According to both supporters and opponents of the draft, the charter not only makes Muslim clerics the arbiters for many civil rights, it also could give a constitutional basis for citizens to set up Saudi-style “religious police” to monitor morals and enforce segregation of the sexes, imposition of Islamic dress codes and even harsh punishments for adultery and theft — regardless of what laws on the books say.
_________________________________
The spiraling crisis is threatening to turn into an outright fight for the identity of post-revolutionary Egypt, splitting the nation between those who want an Islamic state and those who oppose it, two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
For Islamists, the constitution is the keystone for their ambitions to bring Islamic rule, a goal they say is justified by their large victory in last winter’s parliamentary elections. President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected opposition demands that he cancel a Dec. 15 nationwide referendum on the draft.
“Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.
“Bottom line, this is a struggle between ideologies — the Islamic ideology moving with a clear plan with public support, and the secularists,” said pro-Morsi demonstrator Khaled Omar, his head bandaged from Wednesday’s fighting. “We are defending Islam, which people want.”
The opposition is determined to stop the draft, and thousands marched for a third straight day Friday on the palace.
The Brotherhood is “unleashing its gang chanting jihadi slogans, as if they are in a holy war against the infidels,” said businessman Magdi Ashri, who opposes Morsi. “Their agenda is to monopolize power in Egypt, whatever it takes.”
Peanut Gallery: I’m still betting on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to prevail in Egypt. The Army’s entrance on the scene just reinforces my position.
In a deft political maneuver, Morsi reversed his earlier position opposing the military and has now left the power and privileges of the Egyptian military pretty much in tact in the new constitution. So… you can see where this is going. The Egyptian military is going with the Morsi flow – forget “power to the people.“ It’s not going to happen.
Take notes folks… you’re watching “Islamic Democracy“ in action.
____________________
Egyptian Army deploy near the presidential palace to secure the site of overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The Egyptian army has deployed tanks outside the presidential palace in Cairo following clashes between supporters and opponents of Mohammed Morsi that left several people dead and hundreds wounded. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)CAIRO – The Egyptian army deployed tanks and gave both supporters and opponents of Mohammed Morsi a deadline to leave the area outside the presidential palace Thursday following fierce street battles that left five people dead and more than 600 injured in the worst outbreak of violence between the two sides since the Islamist leader’s election.
The intensity of the overnight violence, with Morsi’s Islamist backers and largely secular protesters lobbing firebombs and rocks at each other, signaled a possible turning point in the 2-week-old crisis over the president’s assumption of near-absolute powers and the hurried adoption of a draft constitution.
Morsi, meanwhile, seemed determined to press forward with plans for a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum to pass the new charter.
Opposition activists defiantly called for another protest outside the palace later Thursday, raising the specter of more bloodshed as neither side showed willingness to back down.
_____________
But the army’s Republican Guard, an elite unit assigned to protect the president and his palaces, gave protesters on both sides until 3 p.m. to clear the vicinity, according to an official statement. The statement also announced a ban on protests outside any of the nation’s presidential palaces.
“Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.
The Peanut Gallery 