Islamist MPs challenge SCAF and Al-Azhar on constituent assembly

SCAF and Al-Azhar under attack from Islamist MPs for trying to 'usurp' Parliament's right to select members of Egypt's constitution-drafting assembly

Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) MPs used Wednesday's afternoon session of the People's Assembly – Egypt's lower house of parliament – to launch a scathing attack on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Al-Azhar, the world's preeminent institute of Islamic learning.
The attacks came after Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi's meeting with major political leaders on 16 April concluded that the People's Assembly speaker andthe Shura Council chairman would sit with representatives of political parties to reach a consensus on the composition of Egypt's constitution-drafting body, known as the constituent assembly. Islamist MPs slammed Al-Azhar officials for saying they would help find common ground among political forces on the assembly's formation.
In a backlash on Wednesday, FJP MPs said they would not allow the SCAF or Al-Azhar to usurp parliament's right to select the constituent assembly.
Hussein Ibrahim, the FJP's parliamentary spokesman, said, “The FJP respected the Administrative Court's decision on 10 April [stating that the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly must be dissolved because it was formed in a flawed way]. But at the same time we urge other institutions to respect Parliament's right – enshrined in Article 60 of the constitutional declaration – to have the absolute authority to form the 100-member assembly.” He sharply attacked the SCAF's advisory council, which called for amending Article 60 in favour of a new one with clear-cut rules for selecting assembly members.
FJP firebrand Sobhi Saleh said, “The court's decision could easily have been appealed against, but we refrained from doing so... However, the court should not usurp the right of Parliament to select the constituent assembly.”
"We respect Al-Azhar and in return we urge it to respect Parliament's sovereignty on this issue,” he added.
Parliamentary speaker Mohamed Saad El-Katatni said he decided to entrust the Parliament's legislative and constitutional affairs committee to seek new rules for the selection of the constituent assembly's members at a meeting on Sunday 22 April. El-Katatni's decision, however, goes against the will of the SCAF and the chairmen of major secular political parties who said they would sit with Islamists to draw up the new rules.
“Once we reach agreement, the SCAF will invite the elected MPs of the People's Assembly and Shura Council to a meeting to put the agreement into effect,” said the Wafd Party chairman El-Sayed El-Badawi.
"All Egyptians expect the People's Assembly and Shura Council to perform their main task stated by Article 60 of the constitutional declaration, which is to select a new constituent assembly,” said El-Katatni.
“MPs are the ones exclusively entrusted with this job and they have to be up to this responsibility,” he added.
El-Katatnisaid, “Parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee will hold hearing sessions with all those who want to contribute to setting the new rules [of the constituent assembly] in order to gain the support of political forces.
“These new rules should be free of the drawbacks which hit the formation of the former constituent assembly and become an integral part of the peaceful transition of Egypt to a democratic state,” argued El-Katatni.
Mohamed El-Beltagi, a leading FJP MP, said, “we hope Parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee will do its job very soon so that we do not give the SCAF or Al-Azhar a chance to usurp Parliament's rights.”
The new Islamist attack on the SCAF comes against the backdrop ofgrowing antipathy between the Brotherhood andEgypt's ruling generals. Brotherhood leaders blasted the SCAF for allegedly manipulating the presidential election registration process. The Brotherhood decided to join a million-man demonstration in Tahrir Square under the title “Restoring the Revolution."
The Brotherhood reacted with dismay to the disqualification of its deputy leader, Khairat El-Shater, from the presidential race. FJP MP Sobhi Saleh told an Alexandria gatheringthis week that “the SCAF's members are like the infidels of Mecca.”
In response, SCAF member and legal adviser Major General Mamdouh Shahin said, “We feel sorry that some MPs are trying their best to smear the reputation of the SCAF.”
El-Katatni's decision on the formation of the constituent assembly was met with mixed reactions. Islamist MPs from the Salafist Nour Party said, “Entrusting Parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee with debating the new rules of the constituent assembly is the right step because it is a message to all that Parliament has the upper hand on this issue.”
The Nour Party's Younis Makhyoun said, “It is really disgusting that some secular forces seized the court decision to launch a hostile campaign against Islamists and call for excluding parliamentarians from the constituent assembly altogether.”
Secular MPs, however, expressed fears that “Parliament's Islamist-dominated constitutional and legislative affairs committee will give priority to partisan interests and insist again that Islamist MPsget an upper hand.”
Mustafa Bakri, an independent leftist MP, said, “El-Katatni's decision goes against what was agreed with the SCAF's leaders on 16 April. Regardless of Parliament's absolute right to form the assembly, Islamists should be strongly aware that excluding other forces or creating an unbalanced constituent assemblywill bring them under heavy criticism again and put the country in a constitutional crisis.”
“The insistence of Islamists on imposing their majority on the first assembly wasted lots of time and exposed them to what they wanted to avoid – electing a president ahead of drafting a new constitution,” Bakri said. "If they waste more time in forming the constituent assembly, they should blame themselves and not others – as they always like to do – for this constitutional plight.”
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