Doaa El-Bey covers the death of Pope Shenouda and its ramification The death of Pope Shenouda II, patriarch of the Coptic Church, left Egyptians shocked. Al-Akhbar's banner on Monday had "Queues for 3km in front of Cathedral to pay tribute to Pope Shenouda". Al-Wafd on the same day bid farewell to the pope whom it described as "the poet of the crescent and cross" and Al-Shorouk on Tuesday had "Shenouda next to Saint Bishoi in Wadi Al-Natroun, as he requested". The parliament's decision to select half the members of the committee which will draft the constitution from within the Islamist-dominated parliament together with the presidential race made the front pages of all newspapers during the week. Al-Ahram's banner on Sunday had "Half the constitutional founding committee from within parliament and half from outside". Al-Masry Al-Youm headlined on Sunday "Constitution in the grip of parliament". Al-Youm Al-Sabei on Monday noted that those who yearned for the position of president rushed to register. The parliament's decision was not welcomed by many writers. Mahmoud Ghallab wrote that the parliament should have refrained from joining the founding committee and left the job to experts and specialised people outside the parliament. "The 50 per cent MPs in the founding constitutional committee is a setback to democracy, and a reproduction of the age of tailored laws and monopolising authorities," Ghallab wrote in Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. He added that it destroyed the principle of détente in drafting a constitution that establishes a modern state and raises fears of encroachment on rights, liberties, national unity and the status of minorities. Ghallab also pointed out that the parliament ignored the fact that the constitutional court is reviewing a case on the legitimacy of parliament on the basis of inconsistency in the division of constituencies and inequality in dealing with partisan and independent candidates. Abdel-Ati Ahmed asked whether Egypt is heading towards drafting an Islamic constitution and whether it is supposed to be drafted by the parliamentary majority or be a representative of all groups in society. "Did people choose MPs to draft the constitution or to legislate and monitor the performance of the government?" Ahmed asked in the official daily Al-Ahram. For the first time in Egyptian history, he wrote, the legislative power is responsible for choosing the founding committee for drafting a new constitution when there is a verdict issued by the constitutional court to ban an authority that is established according to the constitution to draft a constitution. The MPs, Ahmed explained, will not be unbiased; they will be governed by their political motivations in drafting the constitution. The founding committee should be selected according to efficiency rather than according to geographical or sectarian division. It should be based on the principle of citizenship and the treating of all Egyptians equally. Said Ismail wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar that Egypt is the only state in the world in which any citizen can be president. He is only required to have an Egyptian birth certificate and a national ID. Thus, Ismail was not surprised by the number of citizens who have taken out document needed to run for the presidency. It includes people from various backgrounds and professions including the mechanic, the undertaker and those who hardly have any education. Ismail ascribed the disorder to the absence of any conditions for those who want to run for the presidency, giving many people the impression that democracy means equality between the educated and uneducated. "The revolution implies mutiny on everything and liberty indicates that you snatch what you want even if you do not deserve it." He expected to see more disorder as the door is still open for any new potential candidates. Yasser Abdel-Aziz warned of turning the presidential election into a religious conflict. The writer expressed more concern after the potential presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail rejected a law that banned using mosques or houses of worship for election propaganda, and described it as a political ploy from those "who do not understand the real role of mosques in discussing public issues." Abdel-Aziz regarded Abu Ismail's response as definite proof that the presidential elections will see religious conflicts. Thus, instead of an objective competition on the programmes and policies of the candidates to build the country, the presidential race will become an arena for competition on a religious bases. "Egypt witnessed three post-revolution elections: the referendum, the People's Assembly and Shura Council. Unfortunately, they all saw spiteful religious and sectarian polarisation because some political trends used religion to achieve political gains," he wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. While Abdel-Aziz described that as a catastrophic end to the dreams of Egyptians and a degradation of their sacrifice, he warned that those who launched the revolution would not stay silent when they see that their revolution and country are being led into sectarian division. Many writers focussed on the repercussions of the death of Pope Shenouda and questioned the future of the Coptic Church after him. Adel El-Sanhouri wrote that the pope died during a critical stage in the history of Egypt. "The country is in labour and its political and social map is being reshaped." While El-Sanhouri stated that he fully complied with the will of God, the writer expressed belief that the country needed the presence of the pope with his wisdom, experience and ability to deal with the problems facing Egypt "during this difficult transitional period." The writer remembered Shenouda's famous stand against normalisation with Israel, his decision not to go to Israel with former president Anwar Sadat in 1977 and not to visit Jerusalem except with his Muslim brothers. "The death of Pope Shenouda raises fear and concern about the future of the Egyptian Church and the challenges facing it. I think that the future of the Church is of interest to Muslims as well as Christians," El-Sanhouri wrote in the independent daily Al-Youm Al-Sabei.
