Secular parties have decided to turn the debate over a new constitution into the decisive battle with the Muslim Brotherhood, reports Khaled Dawoud "Bread, freedom and social justice", was one of the key slogans chanted by millions of Egyptians during their revolt against Hosni Mubarak when he was president nearly two years ago. However, on Friday 19 October, the slogan was changed to reflect the current key controversial issue between the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and non-Islamist parties. "Bread, freedom and the downfall of the Constituent Assembly", chanted the thousands who took part in the day-long demonstrations. The demand to dissolve the current Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution, was also the key demand by secular parties in a similar big demonstration they held on 12 October. But that protest turned into ugly street fights after the Muslim Brotherhood decided to mobilise its members at the same spot in Tahrir Square to confirm their support for President Mohamed Morsi, and the work being done by the assembly. Non-Islamist parties were not only outraged by several articles in the second draft of the constitution presented this week, which they saw as a threat to the civil nature of the state, basic human rights related to freedom of expression and women's rights. They also vehemently opposed the composition of the 100-member Constituent Assembly, claiming that the majority either directly belonged to Islamist parties, namely the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Nour Party, or sympathised with their goal to implement Islamic Sharia, or law, in Egypt. The secular parties charged that the Brotherhood abused their majority, together with the Nour Party, in the now dissolved parliament in order to make sure that any new constitution would reflect their Islamist vision. The parliament was dissolved in June by the Supreme Constitutional Court after judges ruled that the election law was unconstitutional. While secular parties wanted any new constitution to be agreed on by consensus, considering the importance of this document, the Brotherhood and Nour insisted that differences should be settled through majority vote, namely 57 out of the 100 members of the assembly. Secular parties insist that the present assembly has much more than 57 members who are Islamists, making the process of approving a new constitution only a formality. On Friday 19 October the protests held by secular parties went peaceful, after the Brotherhood admitted, albeit grudgingly, they were wrong to clash with their opponents a week before. However, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), established as the political arm of the Brotherhood after the revolution, continued their harsh attacks against secular parties, claiming that by opposing the draft constitution, they were siding with elements of the former Mubarak regime, and opposing the will of the majority of Egyptians. 'The Friday of Remnants of the Old Regime [known in Arabic as fulul] and leftists,' the front page headline of the Freedom and Justice newspaper had on Friday. The thousands who took part in the 19 October demonstrations in several parts of Cairo and other major cities were keen to distance themselves from remnants of the old regime to the degree that when some supporters of former presidential candidate Amr Moussa showed up in Tahrir, they were immediately attacked and forced to leave. Moussa, who recently formed a political party named the National Congress together with other smaller liberal parties, strongly denies he was a supporter of the former regime, and claims he was only doing his job when he was foreign minister, and later as secretary-general of the Arab League. The Dostour Party, led by former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed Al-Baradei; the Popular Trend led by former Nasserist presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi who came third in the race after President Mohamed Morsi and former prime minister Ahmed Shafik; the Egyptian Social Democratic Party led by Mohamed Abul-Ghar; the Egyptian Liberals Party led by business tycoon Naguib Sawiris; and the Socialist Popular Alliance led by Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, were the key political forces that organised Friday's rally and were clearly present in Tahrir Square. Other smaller leftist groups, such as the Revolutionary Socialists, the Egyptian Socialist Party and the Nasserist Karama Party also raised their banners at the protest, strongly criticising the Muslim Brotherhood and its party, the FJP, claiming they were not any different from the now dissolved former ruling National Democratic Party, led by Mubarak. Some of the banners carried a photo that had half of Morsi's face, while the other half was that of Mubarak, and the words "Mohamed Morsi Mubarak". The ousted president's full name is Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. Meanwhile, one of the most popular chants repeated by protesters in their long marches from various parts of Cairo to Tahrir Square was: "Sell, sell, sell; sell the revolution oh you Badie," referring to the Muslim Brotherhood's most influential figure, Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie. This slogan, in particular, which rhymes in Arabic, infuriates the Brotherhood's supporters. "We have no option now but to organise and mobilise the masses in rejecting the draft constitution," said Shadi Harb of the Dostour Party. "We still have a lot of work to do in order to explain to Egyptians that the draft being discussed now at the Constituent Assembly does not match at all the goals that led them to organise their first popular revolution in their history," he added. To prove their ability to organise and match the vast capabilities of the Muslim Brotherhood, the non-Islamist parties came to Tahrir with hundreds of banners and trucks with many speakers that chanted slogans against the Brotherhood. Many of the participants were dressed in T-shirts that carried the name of the political party they belonged to. The majority of secular parties were holding high hopes that the Supreme Administrative Court would rule on Tuesday that the formation of the Constituent Assembly by the now dissolved parliament would be found illegal so that the process could start all over again. However, the court ruled to refer the entire case to the Supreme Constitutional Court, which traditionally takes a relatively long time to rule on cases. For the Brotherhood and Islamists that was seen as a major victory, mainly because the ruling would give the assembly enough time to finish the draft, and even put it to a vote in a popular referendum. In that case, it would be very difficult to rewrite the constitution, even if the Constitutional Court ruled later that the formation of the Constituent Assembly was illegal. "It will be practically impossible to draft a new constitution if the people approved the current draft in a referendum," said Mohamed Adel, a human rights lawyer. On Tuesday night, Al-Baradei of the Dostour Party, together with Sabahi and other key leaders of non-Islamist parties held an emergency news conference at the Press Syndicate to confirm their opposition to the draft that was circulated by the Constituent Assembly this week. "We will continue to demand that the president restructure the membership of the assembly and reconsider the articles that we see as a violation of key human rights and that represent a retreat from all the previous constitutions Egypt has had in its modern history," said Sabahi of the Popular Trend. "This is our decisive battle." Tamer Al-Meehi, a leading member of the Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, charged that the Administrative Court had decided to refer the case on the legitimacy of the current Constituent Assembly to the Supreme Court in an attempt to press the Brotherhood to change proposed articles on the judiciary in the latest draft released by the assembly. "This is clear. The judiciary is part of the conflict now, and they are giving the Brotherhood a chance to amend the articles they don't like and which they see as an infringement on their powers. Otherwise, they would rule that the formation of the present assembly is illegal, like the first one." The dissolved parliament's first attempt to form the Constituent Assembly was found illegal by the Administrative Court in April. The court said that the previous parliament broke the law when it decided that the majority of the assembly members should come from the parliament itself, and ruled that it should be dissolved. With the latest court ruling on Tuesday, most legal experts believe that the road is now clear for the present assembly to finish its work and put the final product to a popular vote. If that's the case, secular and non-Islamist parties have no other alternative but to escalate their opposition on the street in order to force the assembly members to amend the draft articles they oppose, particularly those related to freedom of belief, expression and women's rights.
