Sinai is a very valuable part of Egypt, and it has a unique place in the hearts of all Egyptians and Muslims because of its history with Prophets and history with wars. Egyptian young men died to get Sinai back after Israel’s occupation in 1973; however, after the January 25, revolution, Sinai witnessed a number of terrorist attacks, which caused worries to spread all over Egypt and Israel. The Egyptian army spokesman said that Sinai is under control and the army is working to end the militants or Jihadi groups working in Sinai, while Israel insists that Sinai is full of Jihadi groups that work to attack the boarders of Israel, like the attack took place in August 2012.

In Ramdan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, militants attacked Egyptian soldiers on the boarders by sunset, which resulted in killing 15 Egyptian security personnel, besides tens were injured. The attackers used a pickup truck equipped with explosives to breach the boarders, while they stole an army vehicle and drove it about a mile inside Israel before a missile killed the attackers and exploded the vehicle.

Eight militants were killed in this operation and Israel gave the bodies of the dead attackers to Egypt. During the examination of the attackers’ bodies it was found that their shoes were “made in Palestine”, which means that the attackers may have came to Egypt from Gazza. Also there are possibilities that the attackers were trained by Hammas in Gazza; however, no one knows the reason that may encourage Hammas to participate in such attack in that time, although attacking Israel boarders can be a good reason for Hammas to work in Sinai.

On the other side, this attack represented a test for Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and his relationship with Israel. Israeli military intelligence had information about the attack days before it happened, and reports say that Israel shared such information with Egypt, but it doubted that the Egyptian authorities would take an action to avert the attack. Ehud Barack, Israel’s Minister of Defense said after the attack “I hope this will be a wake up call for Egypt regarding the necessity to be sharp and efficient on their side”

About two months ago the Egyptian army started an operation called it “Nesr” or “Eagle” to clean Sinai from militants and Jihadists, besides destroying the tunnels between Gazza and Sinai, which is heavily used to transfer weapons, drugs and criminals between both sides.

The Egyptian army said in its statements that it killed hundreds of Jihadists and destroyed more than 120 tunnels, and the operation is still running. Yet, reports continue to come with expectations that Jihadists are preparing for a huge operation to revenge for the dead attackers in August and this is why Israel insists that Sinai is not yet under control.

The coming days should see more actions taken by the Egyptian army and more cautious from Israel side. Both sides should have learned from the lesson and Mohamed Morsi now knows that the people in Egypt won’t let it go, if more soldiers were killed by militants or Jihadists.

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The Arab Spring, as it is now globally called, from its inception represented a strong desire of the people to reclaim for themselves the political system by improving the Constitution. Whether it was Tunisia, Libya or Egypt or the different factions in the political arena itself, the focus of everyone’s demands was projected onto the process of Constitution-writing. It is this major departure from previous upheavals in the Middle East that makes Arab Spring a very special moment in Middle-Eastern history. And by placing emphasis on the current exercise of Constitution-drafting as an exercise of realizing the society’s expectations, we give the movement the dignity it deserves.

It is not surprising that in an age of globalization, the majority of the viewers of the Arab Spring on media channels are not from Middle-East. These viewers are mostly from countries with an established tradition of liberalism and democracy who watch daily the comparison of the nascent Egyptian Constituent Assembly with the robust institutions that have developed in their own countries. This is clearly a fallacy, for how can a new democracy, either in its vision or implementation, compare to democracies that have been established, if not less, then atleast for half a century. Most importantly, this is not how the Egyptians themselves look at the whole process which culminated in the referendum. They do not have in their mind the German Constitution, the Indian Constitution and even less, the American Constitution (the present German and Indian Constitutions are about 60 years old whereas the American one is over 200 years old). They remember what the arbitrary and corrupt regime established under their previous Constitution, that is, the 1971 Constitution, when they engage in debate to shape the new one. And in order to truly appreciate the significance of the entire movement, we must look at the Constitution that was ousted.

The Constitution of 1971 also envisaged a democratic system, guaranteed fundamental rights and declared the Sharia as principal source of legislation. However, the constitutional provisions were sold out by the laws that were enacted by the executive with the help of a rubber-stamp legislature.

The Fundamental Rights (such as freedom of speech and liberty) were qualified by phrases like “according to the law”, whose vagueness created room for the regime to completely deny these protections through the enactment of rigid laws. The entire constitution was an act of skullduggery with all the major rights and provisions being subordinated to laws and thus subverting the very idea of a society having a constitution.

The year 2007 saw Mubarak attempting to become democratic by offering to democratize the society. But why was Mubarak of all people democratizing the society? And if Mubarak democratized the society, then what is happening since the last two years? Besides a slew of amendments, the key amendment was Article 76, which was a 709 word article whose sole purpose was to engineer one of Mubarak’s sons to the Presidency by creating a very high technical requirement in terms of support of officials and registered parties to contest elections. This article also served the purpose of preventing any Muslim Brotherhood member or any other person who could put a serious challenge to the regime from contesting the elections.

It is these reasons that made people wary of the regime and the 1971 Constitution. And it is these actions that have become the background against which the Egyptians are judging their new Constitution.

The next entry will continue the discussion, dealing with role of religion, civilian-military affairs and the nature of State institutions in 1971 Constitution.

References:

http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/Egypt%20Constitution.pdf

http://muslim-academy.com/egypts-new-constitution-writing-the-beginning/

 

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VasantAgnihotri

I am a student of law in Calcutta, India, and I am interested in history, politics and philosophy. I do not hold any religious beliefs but I respect the beliefs of others. I am much interested in the Islamic religion, and the history and politics of the Islamic world.

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It became obvious that Egypt’s referendum over the new constitution is in the wrong direction, not because the result is going to be accepting or rejecting the constitution, but because the referendum continues to lead to clashes in the streets. The National Salvation Front proved that there are sever violations happened during the first and the second phases of the vote over the constitution, while Islamists backing President Mohamed Morsi insist that the vote result will be “accepting” the constitution because of the people’s hope to find stability.

The Muslims Brotherhood is Egypt have been working hard in the past week to gather as much acceptors as it can, hoping to see a big difference in votes between accepting and rejecting the new constitution. On the other side, Egypt’s opposition detected fraud and violations took place during the voting process in its first and second phases such as, having fake judges observing the voting centers, as a lot of voting centers were being managed by teachers or University professors, which is against the law in Egypt.

Moreover, unofficial results for the first round of voting released by Freedom and Justice party, which is the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, showed that 56% said “yes” for the new constitution, while 44% said “No”, knowing that the majority in Cairo said “No” and this clearly annoyed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. In case the trend continued today, it is expected to see massive marches all over Egypt refusing the constitution and the fraud took place by Islamists who support President Morsi.

We should say that the opposition announced that the first round’s result was 66% for “No” and 34% for “Yes”. The opposition also reported what it called “unprecedented rigging” which included more than 700 violations in only 10 governorates, amid the absence of judicial observation.

Clashes were seen in different governorates during the voting phases and it was said that a man was killed with gun shot in Qina during fights between supporters and the opposition. Civilian Organizations monitoring the referendum said that a number of Christians were stopped from going to their voting center, as Islamists closed the centers and threatened Christian families, knowing that almost all Christian citizens in Egypt are rejecting the new constitution. However, the Police managed to open some of the closed voting centers, but Islamists are still warning Christians from going to vote, especially in Al Minia.

It is expected that we will see a number of demonstrations in the coming hours, before announcing the referendum result, while deadly clashes remain expected. It was said that the Muslim Brotherhood members are preparing to stay in the streets tonight and tomorrow to celebrate the result that should come showing Egyptians agreed on the constitution, as they expect, while the opposition is expected to call for a demonstration in Tahrir square tomorrow, after the preliminary signs of the referendum results appear.

The Egyptian army started to secure the main buildings all over Egypt, and it is increasing the number of soldiers around Ittehadya Palace that witnessed deadly clashes before between Islamists and the opposition.

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The Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called the Egyptians to vote on a new constitution prepared by a Committee that witnessed serious conflicts between the supporters of the president and the opposition. Egypt has been witnessing marches or demonstrations by the opposition since 20 days, in Tahrir Square and in front of Ittihadya Palace, where President Morsi is managing the leading Arab country.

Such call for referendum is expected to lead to deadly confrontation between the supporters and the opposition, after Egypt witnessed clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood members and other citizens who are against Morsi’s decisions, knowing that such clashes led to 7 dead bodies among them one MB member, in addition to more than 700 injuries.

Moreover, President Morsi gave the army what is called “Judicial arrest rights”, so that Egypt’s army can play a role in securing the referendum and help the Ministry of Interior to control the tough situation. Months back, President Morsi criticized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces when it gave the same right to the army officers to secure the presidential elections; however, Morsi is now doing the same thing.

Politicians in Egypt refused that the army would be part of the political conflicts, but it seems that Morsi insists to push the army to face the opposition in the streets. Liberals, leftists and other opposition parties called for demonstrations in all the Egyptian governorates today, while the Islamists called for two demonstrations in Cairo, so that they can show support for the President’s decisions and for the new constitution.

Morsi’s decision to make the referendum on December 15 without having a national dialogue, angered the opposition leaders, such as Mohamed Baradie, Hamdeen Sabahy and Amr Mousa. They insist on cancelling the referendum and re-creating a constitution committee that represent all Egyptians to write a new constitution, without domination from the Islamists on the committee’s decisions.

Furthermore, the Egyptian army is now securing the Presidential Palace, hoping to stop the protesters from getting near to it, but such trials failed in the last week’s demonstrations as the protesters made it through the fences and reached to the gates of the palace. Islamists such as Khayrat Al Shater and Hazem Salah Abu Ismaiel warned the protesters from getting near the palace and said they would go to the streets with thousands to protect the president and the palace. Such threats were said despite the protesters did not try to break into the palace in last week’s demonstrations and their peaceful attitude was seen all the time, except when the MB members attacked them and removed their tents near Ittihadya Palace.

The National Salvation Front is warning the Islamists from more clashes as it will lead to a civil war, while the president is ignoring the demands of Tahrir Square and calling all Egyptians to participate in the referendum next Saturday. The army said in a statement that all sides should have negotiations to avoid further troubles, but the opposition refused to meet President Morsi, and after Egyptians were killed on Wednesday, and they said that having a dialogue with the President should come after canceling the referendum.

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The people of Egypt are always ready to help Palestine at any cost. The Muslim Brotherhood itself always fought for the interest of its neighbor Palestine. Now, the question is, how Morsi will satisfy the demand of the treaty and the Palestine people together as he promised to maintain both the treaty and the freedom of Gaza. We just have to wait and see what the merits of the newly elected president do on this very complicated issue.

The present situation of Egypt is not that positive from the real sense of democracy but when you look two years back, you will see the present state of Egypt much better. Now, the biggest impediment to the fair and perfect democracy in Egypt is the military and the SCAF. President Morsi; however, is an Islamic president, but he declared himself the president of all the Egyptians. This is a very good start. He met all the religious leaders of different religions after being elected as president and promised to ensure the right of all the communities to prevail the democracy.

The people of Egypt shaded their blood to make their dearest country free from Mubarak’s tyranny and they chose president Morsi to make their dream real. He has numerous challenges ahead. Egypt has a very complicated stand with the international community especially it’s relation with Israel is profoundly complicated.  The other Arab countries are always against Israel and ready to destroy them, but Egypt made a treaty with Israel which has been convened to continue by the international community especially by the United States.  President Morsi has said that he will continue all the international treaty which includes the treaty with Israel. He also promised to help Gaza to be freed.  President Morsi, however, should believe that he has not been elected just as the other presidents are elected. Rather, he has been elected after the best revolution of the century, so his responsibility and merits-demerits will greatly effect the future democracy in Egypt.

With extremely high expectations, Morsi is not upsetting the people. He has done many very popular things. He decreased the power of the SCAF, the ascendency of military. In the crisis moment of Gaza, people he stood behind them. As Al Jazeera reports, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has condemned Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip by calling them “unacceptable” and emphasized they would destabilize the region. Morsi lambasted the Jewish state on Thursday for the first time since he took office in June following the overthrow of Hosni Mubabrak.

“We are in contact with the people of Gaza and with Palestinians, and we stand by them until we stop the aggression, and we do not accept under any circumstances the continuation of this aggression on the Strip,” Mursi said.

Egypt can play an important role in making Gaza free. Morsi should proceed with due patience and wisdom.

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mdemamhasan

I am a free hand writer. Writing is my passion. I like to write blog articles ezine articles and different article directory sites.

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In this Episode, Chris speaks with Ehab and Ahmed about the breaking news of Egypt’s decision to dissolve parliament days before the Presidential Election.

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Official results in Egypt’s presidential election indicate the following results as of 10:00 am EST on Monday, May 28: Mohamed Morsi: 5,764,952 votes – 24.7% Ahmed Shafiq: 5,505,327 votes – 23.6% Hamdeen Sabahi: 4,820,273 votes – 20.7% Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh: 4,065,239 votes – 17.4% Amr Moussa: 2,588,850 votes – 11.1% Mohamed Selim al-Awa: 235,374 Which means a second round between Morsi and Shafiq on 19 June 2012

The upcoming Egyptian elections have the potential to not only change Egypt, but the entire Middle East. There’s a strong possibility that decades of American policy in the region can be overturned.  The elections have huge implications for the United States and even bigger ones for Israel.  War and peace may be in the balance.

Here in our Cairo bureau as I listen to the boats float by on the Nile blasting music as revelers enjoy the city before it’s clogged by voting with checkpoints, there’s talk that this could be a moment like 1979 in Iran, a possible 180-degree shift for the country and the Middle East.  I’ll start at what’s immediately coming up.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Egyptians go to polls to elect a new president.  First off, that’s big statement in itself.  Egypt hasn’t elected a truly democratic leader in its 5,000 years of recorded history.  This is the land of the pharaohs, the undisputed and often tyrannical God-kings.  Then it was the land of the Romans, sultans, Mamluks, Khedives, kings, European-dominated governments and finally military rulers.

There are five main candidates who have a chance of winning the election.  Egypt has a presidential system.  The president runs the state.  Who the president is matters profoundly.  In order, the candidates are:

Mohammed Mursi:

is the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. He was the party’s back-up candidate, until the original contender Khairat al-Shater lost his appeal against disqualification in mid-April.

Mohammad Mursi was originally the reserve candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood had long feared that the ruling military council would use Egypt’s election committee to disqualify Islamist presidential hopefuls in order to make room for former regime officials to win.

According to some estimates, the Brotherhood has a million activists in Egypt.  Mursi is the official brotherhood candidate, but would likely end up as the group’s “face man.”  Mursi is not charismatic.  He’s not a dynamic speaker.  He wasn’t the Brotherhood’s first choice.  The group initially wanted its powerful money man Khairat al-Shater, a business tycoon who manages the group’s wealth, to be its candidate, but he was disqualified on account of his prison record.  Egypt’s military-backed presidents, including Hosni Mubarak, imprisoned many Brotherhood members, seeing the group as its biggest existential threat.  Analysts say Shater, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, and its leadership committee would end up being the real force behind Mursi, pulling the strings. Right after the revolution that toppled Mubarak, the Brotherhood said it would not present a candidate for president, but then broke its promise.  A Brotherhood victory would be a total about-face for Egypt.  Since the late president Anwar Sadat, Egypt has pursued a largely pro-American, Western-leaning policy.  Egypt has maintained a peace treaty with Israel since March 1979, following the Camp David accords. The Brotherhood has already threatened to cancel the peace treaty if the United States stops providing the $2.1 billion of military and development aid Egypt has received annually since 1982.  The Brotherhood now talks publicly about maintaining good relations with the United States, but at its core the group is not pro-American.  The Brotherhood is actively anti-Israel.  Egypt’s long-term relations with United States and short-term relations with Israel could be at risk if Mursi becomes president.  Egypt is the biggest country in the Middle East.  So goes Egypt, so goes the region.  A dramatic shift in Egypt’s alignment would have global implications.

Ahmed Shafiq 

Mr Shafiq was Egypt’s last prime minister under Mubarak. He served for just over a month, until he resigned on 3 March 2011. His candidacy sparked angry reactions from those who saw him as a Mubarak loyalist. He was initially barred from standing, but reinstated recently after an appeal. Shafiq insists that he was always a voice of the opposition within Mr Mubarak’s regime.

His campaign flyers call him “the only civilian-administrative presidential candidate who has real and successful administrative experience”, referring to his nine-year term as minister of civil aviation.

Campaign material says that “Shafiq is the candidate of revolutionary decisions”, because he asked regional governors to name streets after dead revolutionary activists, and also froze the assets of key figures in the former regime.

Shafiq is the ultimate “fulool” candidate.  He was the last prime minister appointed by Mubarak.  Shafiq was, like Mubarak, an air force commander.  Shafiq still defends Mubarak.  Shafiq is presenting himself as “Mr. Security.”  After the revolution Egyptian police were discredited.  They were seen as the henchmen of the Mubarak regime.  For the past year, the police have largely been absent from the streets.  With the police gone, murder, rape, kidnappings, car-jackings and antiquities’ theft have all risen dramatically.  Shafiq says he’ll restore order in 24 hours.  He’s the strongman candidate.  His message appeals to some Egyptians fed up with the deteriorating security situation.  Critics say the revolution replaced one dictator in Mubarak and that electing Shafiq would simply be bringing in another one.

Abd Elmoneim Abo-ElFotoh                                                                                                                                                                                    

Dr Abo-ElFotoh, a respected moderate, is running for office as an independent candidate

A long-time Muslim Brotherhood member known for his liberal views,was suspended from the group after he announced in May 2011 that he intended to run for president.

He lists four main aspirations behind his candidacy – to promote freedom in Egypt, to promote the value of justice, to strengthen education and scientific research, and to open the doors to investment in Egypt from Arab countries and beyond.

Al-Fotouh, like Mursi, speaks about maintaining good relations with world powers, including the United States. During his campaign, however, Al-Fotouh called Israel “an enemy state.”.Al-Fotouh likes to say Turkey is example Egypt could follow with an Islamist leader, but without Islamic fundamentalists deciding how people should live their daily lives.

sources : 

Wikipedia, Al-Ahram , AFP, BBC Arabic , CBC Egypt , ON TV

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