Egyptian Voters Approve New Constitution By 98.1% Vote

Egypt's new constitution has been approved by 98.1% of the voters in Egypt according to an announcement by the Supreme Electoral Committee. Ahram Online reports the official voting statistics.  38.6% of Egypt's 53.4 million voters voted in the Jan. 14-15 referendum, with 19,985,389 voters voting "Yes".  Expatriates (who voted between Jan. 8 and 12) also approved the constitution by a 98.1% vote with 15.7% of the 64,000 registered voting. Wikipedia has a more detailed breakdown of the voting data. Nabil Salib, head of the Supreme Electoral Committee said: "Now that God has supported us in legalizing our constitution, we ask for his aid in achieving the remaining two stages of the road map: the presidential and parliamentary elections." (RT News). The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement yesterday saying in part: "The draft Egyptian constitution passed a public referendum this week, but it's what comes next that will shape Egypt’s political, economic and social framework for generations." The New York Times yesterday reported on election results and U.S. reaction. This prior posting sets out the provisions in the new constitution relating to religion and state.

Unofficial English Translation of Egypt's New Draft Constitution Now Available

An unofficial English translation of Egypt's new draft Constitution is now available from Eman Nabih's blog. (Note the translation begins  about 10 paragraphs down in the linked blog post.) The translation does not include a long Preamble that appears in the Arabic version. Here are the articles most relevant to religion and state issues:

Article (1): Arab Republic of Egypt is a sovereign state, united and indivisible, a democratic republic, based on citizenship and the rule of law. Egyptian people is part of the Arab nation and work on integration and unity, and Egypt is part of the Islamic world, belong to the African continent, and is proud of its spillover Asia, and contribute to the building of human civilization.

Article (2): Islam is the state religion, and Arabic is its official language, and the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation.

Article (3): The principles of the laws of the Egyptian Christians and Jews’s legislation are the main source of legislation governing their personal status and their religious affairs, and the choice of  their spiritual leaders.

Article (7): Al-Azhar is Islamic scientific independent institution, exclusively specializing to carry on all his affairs, which is the main reference in religious sciences and Islamic Affairs, and is in charge of advocacy and dissemination of the religion science and the Arabic language in Egypt and the world. The State is committed to provide sufficient funds to achieve its objectives. Sheikh of Al-Azhar is independent and non-insulated, and the law regulates his nomination among the members of the senior scientists.

Article (10): family is the basis of society, founded on religion, morality and patriotism, and the state is keen on the cohesion and stability and the consolidation of its values.

Article (11): The State ensures the achievement of equality between women and men in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. The State takes measures to ensure the representation of women are adequately represented in parliaments as prescribed by the law, and ensures women’s right to hold public office and functions of senior management in the country and recruitment in agencies and judicial institutions, without discrimination against them. The State is committed to the protection of women against all forms of violence, and to ensure the empowerment of women to reconcile family duties and work requirements. The State also is committed to provide care and protection of motherhood, childhood and women-headed households and the elderly and women most in need.

Article (24): Arabic language, religion and national history in all its stages are basic materials in the Pre-University public and private education. Universities operate on the teaching of human rights, values ​​and professional Scientific ethics  disciplines.

Article (50): Egypt heritage of  civilization, culture, moral and material in all its diversity and grand stages, ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Islamic, national and humanely wealth is the commitment of the state to maintain it and protect it, as well as the balance of contemporary architectural cultural, literary and various artistic and its diversity, and the attack on any of this is a punishable crime by the law. The state pays special attention to maintain the components of cultural pluralism in Egypt.

Article (64): Freedom of belief is absolute. And the freedom of religious practice and the establishment of houses of worship to the owners of the heavenly religions, the right to be regulated by the law.

Article (65): Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed. Everyone has the right to express his opinion by saying, or writing, or photography, or other means of expression and publication.

(Article 74): The citizens have the right to form political parties, to be notified and regulated by the law. And may not be engaging in any political activity, or do political parties based on religion, or on the basis of discrimination on grounds of sex, origin, or on the basis of sectarian or geographic, or exercise hostile activity to the principles of democracy, or a secret, or a nature military or quasi-military. Parties not to be dissolved without a court order.

Article (244): The State works to represent the youth and Christians and persons with disabilities and Egyptian living abroad appropriately in the first elected Deputies Council after this constitution is adopted, so as prescribed by the law.

See prior related posting.

Egypt's New Draft Constitution Heading Toward Referendum, Including Provisions On Religion

Egypt's Daily News reports that yesterday, the Chairman of the Committee of 50 that has been drafting a new Egyptian constitution transmitted its final draft to interim President Adly Mansour. The Jerusalem Post reports that President Mansour is expected to approve the draft and call for a referendum on it to be held in January. The full text of the draft constitution has been published in Arabic, however it does not appear that an English translation of the full document is yet publicly available.  Egypt Source however has published an extensive analysis of the document (Part 1, Part 2) written by Mai El-Sadany, a law student at Georgetown University. Part 1 includes an analysis of the treatment of religion in the new document.  Here are some edited excerpts, but the full analysis is well worth reading:

In the current Constitutional draft, Article 2 remains as is, both defining Islam as the religion of the state and stating that the principles of Sharia are “the primary source of legislation.” Article 219 of the 2012 Constitution [defining the term "principles of Sharia] has been completely removed....  Article 3 ... states that Jewish and Christian law will govern the affairs of Jewish and Christian Egyptians in issues of personal status, religious matters, and the selection of spiritual leadership. Finally, Article 7 discussing the role of Al-Azhar, defines it as the “primary reference for the religious sciences and Islamic matters,” and emphasizes the independence of its head; however, the article does not assign the institution a specific role in the State.... 

... Article 64 sets forth freedom of belief as absolute. The Article, however, states that the law will set forth the right to establish places of worship and the right to practice religious rites for only “the divine religions.” Thus, while the state technically recognizes an absolute freedom of religion and freedom of thought in Article 65, it will only allow the establishment of houses of worship and the litigation of personal status issues based on either an Islamic, Christian, or Jewish identity. A transitional Article 235 also states that a law will be established to facilitate the building and renovation of churches.

Finally, as per Article 74, no political parties are to be established based on religious principles; a similar provision was included in the 1971 Constitution but was removed in texts since, allowing for organizations like the Freedom and Justice Party to be established....

In the current Constitutional draft, Article 1... notes that Egypt is a part of the Islamic world, has ties to the African continent..... 

In a new development, the current draft’s Preamble touches heavily on Egypt’s identity, laying out the country’s Islamic and Christian histories....  The Preamble is also colored with lofty rhetoric ... discussing among other things, the role of Sharia, the importance of human rights, and the necessity for equality. The reference to Sharia is thought to have been included to assuage some members’ fears on secularism....