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| Africa North |
| Egypt's new constitution limits Islamists' ambition, goes for 'civil state' |
| 2013-11-29 |
| [Al Ahram] After 12 hours of debate lasting from Wednesday afternoon into the early hours of Thursday morning, the committee charged with amending Egypt's new constitution was able to reach a consensus on the preamble and most of the chapters of the country's new national charter. The battle for drafting the new constitution's preamble was particularly hard. The majority of secular members, supported by representatives of Egypt's three churches (the Coptic Orthodox, the Catholic and the Anglican) and the Sunni Islam institute of Al-Azhar teamed up against the sole representative of the ultraconservative Islamist Salafist Nour Party, rejecting his last-ditch appeals that a "definition" of the principles of Islamic sharia be included in the preamble and the word "civilian" not to be used in describing the nature of the Egyptian state. Mohammed Salmawy, the committee's official front man, told a presser on Thursday that "the representative of the Nour Party has not succeeded in gaining support for his demands." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 'Civil State' will end up being 'Civil War'. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-11-29 20:42 |