CAIRO - As soon as the membership of the Constituent Assembly (CA) was announced, some of its 100 members, a number of them representing political parties, pulled out, protesting Islamic dominance and adding that the Assembly should have included all segments of society. In response, many political powers, movements and parties have called on their fellow Egyptians to stage a million-man protest march on Friday. The Muslim Brotherhood's efforts to shape Egypt's political future has plunged it into confrontation with both the ruling military council and liberals who are angry at perceived Islamist attempts to dominate the country. Tension has also flared between the Islamists and the ruling generals. A senior Brotherhood leader said the group could stage protests to press its demand for a new Brotherhood-led Cabinet. The friction compounds the challenges against army rule just two months before a presidential election, with the economy edging towards a fiscal crisis that is hurting ordinary Egyptians. Liberals argue that Islamists' success in parliamentary polls should not be reflected in the make-up of the body that will set the rules for how Egypt is governed for years or decades. A Western diplomat said the Brotherhood appeared to be getting more confident and impatient as they got closer to power. "That impatience is most visibly manifested in the Islamists' domination of the Constitutional Assembly. That confidence is manifested in the open challenge to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," the diplomat said. The members who have resigned, as well as many intellectuals and activists, say that the Speaker of the People's Assembly (PA), Mohamed Saad el-Katatni, who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), previously said that the CA would not exclude any segment of the Egyptian society. They add that the Assembly doesn't represent Egyptians and the January 25 Revolution. The FJP and the Salafist Al-Nur Party dominate the CA, which will write the new Constitution after last year's revolt. Some people are angry that there should be 50 People's Assembly (PA) members in the Assembly and another 50 members comprising public figures, young revolutionaries and others, approved by the PA according to certain criteria. Khaled Ali, a presidential hopeful, yesterday called on his rivals, Hamdeen Sabahi, Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh, Abul Ezz el-Hariri, Hesham Bastaweesi and Bothaina Kamel to hold a conference to express their opinions about writing the Constitution. "What is going on is absurd, the CA should be more important than the presidential elections," Ali said, calling on every CA member to resign. "This Assembly won't write the Constitution; it will destroy it.” Film director Khaled Youssef says that the CA is not representative of all segments of society, as the Islamists have arranged things in their own interests. "The 50-50 split is unacceptable, as intellectuals and authors need to be properly represented in the CA." The public are divided over the formation of the CA. Some agree, others disagree. "I don't care whether the Islamists dominate the CA or not; what we need are results," Ahmed Ragab, 41, a PR officer, told the Egyptian Mail over the telephone. Additional reporting from Reuters
