CAIRO: Egyptian nominee, Mohammad Slim el-Awa, said holding up the movement in Suez Canal could drive to a disaster repercussion in Egypt. Foreign countries might want to intervene with the justification of protecting the Canal, according to Constantine agreement in 1888, providing any country rights to navigate the Suez Canal. El-Awa denied he praised the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by comparing him to the Islamic caliph, Omar Bin Khatab. El-Awa justified there is no comparing to Bin Khatab and anyone who makes such a claim about Mubarak shows they know nothing about history. The president nominee also condemned slow performance of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in prosecuting the killers of the January 25 Revolution martyrs. However, he praised the military council for efforts exerted to keep Egypt on safe grounds and completing the State's general budget from the military budget instead of borrowing from abroad. The Islamic intellectual refused the charter of ultra constitution. He said, "I'm against ruling principles of ultra constitution, which could drive to empowering certain political trends. It is neither constitutional nor legal; if it is enforced upon us, we will abort it, and there is nothing above the constitution, not even the constitution of 1971, which the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat described as permanent and Mubarak's change was cancelled." El-Awa said he participated the last million-man demonstration last Friday of Last Warning in order to achieve the Revolution demands and not to call 'the constitutional first,' since it opposes the results of the latest referendum. He delivered a speech in Tahrir Square and called upon Tahrir demonstrators to leave and end their sit-in. Al-Awa added the right to demonstrate is above the constriction but the sit-in could curb movements of public interest. El-Awa said his statement against Pope Shenouda III were not insults but criticisms since the pope is not above the constitution. He supports the idea of inspecting churches if there is doubt of the presences of weapons. El-Awa made these statements during a lecture in society of Egypt for culture and dialogue that About the demands calling to clean the judiciary system, El-Awa said it should not be demanded by demonstrating before the High Court but by pressuring the active powers of judges and politicians. In response to the situation of Shiites, El-Awa said approaching Sunna and Shiite Muslims is not impossible because they taught each other how to be in one hand against Zionism.
