[Al Ahram] Salafist groups launched the Coalition for the Defense of Sharia (Islamic law) on Wednesday. The coalition plans to participate in Friday’s protests to demand the inclusion of Sharia law as the main source of legislation in Egypt’s new constitution.“We are here to announce the beginning of our activities to uphold Islamic Sharia against the attack of secular and liberal forces trying to undermine the Constituent Assembly,” said Tarek El-Zomor, Al-Jama'a Islamiyya leader and Founder of its Building and Development Party.
El-Zomor addressed the issue of the Egyptian constitution-drafting process by the Constituent Assembly.
“Sharia is in danger; those against their demand are challenging any article in the constitution, which only gives way for the application of Sharia and not even requires its implementation,” he claimed.
Others want to bind the constitution with international agreements that allow what God has prohibited, he said.
“Activities defending Sharia must continue until a referendum on the constitution is held,” he continued.
At the presser, El-Zomor called on the Egyptian people to participate in FridayÂ’s protests to reinstate the rule of Sharia. He asserted the law was removed by Western occupiers two centuries ago.
Leftist and liberal groups have criticised the assembly arguing that it is dominated by Islamists. Political forces against the drafting process of the constitution fear a constitution not agreed upon by all members of the Constituent Assembly. Critics are also concerned the draft will pass by a popular referendum before a Constitutional Court ruling on whether the Constituent Assembly will be dissolved or allowed is issued.
The Head of the Salafist Asala Party, Adel Abdel-Maqsoud, described anyone who is against the implementation of Sharia as an "apostate" and stressed that Article 2 of the constitution should state "Islamic Sharia is the source of legislation."
The current draft and the previous 1971 constitution stated the “principles of Islamic Sharia” as the source of legislation. The usage of the term “principles” of Islamic Sharia law in the draft is seen by many conservative and ultra-Orthodox Islamists as being too vague, which could simply translate into universal values of justice and equality, thus ignoring Islamic rules specific to social life in Islamic countries.