• 13:00
  • Friday ,12 July 2013
العربية

Living in the Middle Ages?

Moomen Sallam

Article Of The Day

00:07

Friday ,12 July 2013

Living in the Middle Ages?

I couldn't wait to see the expected constitutional declaration and the new government. However, I found this declaration as a slap on the face because it tries to bring Egypt back to the Middle Ages. It was pretty much a Salafist declaration with a strong flavor of political Islamists who seek old fashioned regimes that don't fit today's life.

The first article copied the second article of the Constitution of 1971, which should have been eliminated a long time ago. However, the Muslim Brotherhood had made it more specified opening the door before a religious state. With the revolution of June 30, such articles were expected to be eliminated. On the contrary, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court decided to issue a declaration with articles that contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all international agreements and copied from the disabled Constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
Unfortunately, the first article of the Constitutional Declaration reads: "Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic state that is based on citizenship, Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is the official language. the principles of Islamic Sharia, which include .... are the main source of legislation”. Once again, Egypt has a religion that controls everything and everyone.
 
Article VII comes as another slap on the face to all those who dreamed of citizenship and equality for all Egyptians. It reads: "Freedom of opinion is guaranteed... State guarantees freedom of belief and freedom of worship to the heavenly religions". This means that followers of religions other than  Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not allowed in Egypt including the Baha'is and even atheists that Egypt has many of them.
 
Such ideas belong to the Middle Ages, and remind us of Inquisition. They claim in the first article that Egypt is based on the principle of citizenship, and then differentiate among the citizens based on religion in the seventh article. I can only smell the Salafis in these articles.
 
Who are the Salafis who control the excessive Provisional Authority in Egypt? They are those who take camel's urine as remedy, marry children, allow farewell sexual intercourse, prohibit arts, and call to cover the antiquities not to be worshipped! They insult all other religions; incited and blessed killing Shiites and Christians. They refused and prohibited the revolution of January 25, and didn't participate in the revolution of June 30. They participated in drafting the horrible constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters participate in Rabaa Al Adawia sit-in. How come those people control the transitional period and reject human rights!
 
 
 
Yes, we want compatibility among all spectra of the Egyptian nation, but this should be according to a modern democratic state that respects human rights and equality among all citizens. Otherwise, we are going to live in the Middle Ages for a very long time.