U.S. Embassy in Cairo closes amid protests
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An Islamist-dominated committee moves ahead on a controversial draft of a new Egyptian constitution despite growing protests.
12:04PM EST November 29. 2012 -CAIRO -- An Islamist-dominated committee voted Thursday to approve articles in a new Egyptian constitution, angering protesters who say the vote is an unacceptable power-grab by President Mohammed Morsi.
"They are moving ahead and pushing the constitution through, hijacking the country and hijacking the freedoms in Egypt," said Kamel Saleh, vice-president of the liberal Egyptian Social Democratic Party, who saw earlier versions of the draft constitution although not the final draft.
The proposed new constitution will be based on "principles" of Islamic law though what that will mean in practice is not yet known. Saleh said he is worried that Morsi, a longtime member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, is taking Egypt toward a theocracy, "a state where religious leaders are given the upper hand in interpreting the law."
Iman Bibars, chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, warned of the consequences.
"It's going to screw us all, everybody – women, men, minorities, everyone, every idiot who thinks he will not be touched by this because he is not a woman or a Christian," Bibars said. "This is a constitution for the Muslim Brotherhood only."
"The constitutional committee does not represent the people," said Saleh.
Islamists won nearly 75% of parliamentary seats in elections held after the ouster of former dictator Hosni Mubark.
Opponents to the constitution as well as a decree Morsi issued recently that gives him sweeping powers demonstrated in the streets of Cairo Thursday. The U.S. embassy closed public services and "strongly urged" U.S. citizens to avoid the area.
"Access into and from the embassy is currently blocked by protesters," said a statement on the embassy website. "The Regional Security Office has instructed that no departures or arrivals from the embassy will be permitted."
The Islamist-dominated government is apparently fast-tracking the approval of the new constitution to head off a possible ruling on Sunday by the Supreme Constitutional Court to dissolve the constitutional assembly. The vote comes after anti-Morsi Egyptians cheered Wednesday the decision by lower court judges to suspend work until the decree is lifted.
"It's a very nice move because we didn't expect the supreme judges of Egypt to move like this," said Maher Fouad, a retired pharmacist.
Judges with the high and lower courts of appeal said they will not return to work to protest the decree that gave Morsi nearly absolute powers, among them immunity from having his decisions subject to judicial review, state television reported.
A statement by the judges of the high appeals court, known as the Court of Cassation, described Morsi's decrees as an "unprecedented" assault on the judiciary and its principles that "defies belief." It said the decision to stop work at all its circuits was also unprecedented but justified by the "magnitude" of the crisis.
Protests Thursday follow demonstrations Tuesday in which at least 200,000 people filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square to denounce the decree. Anti-Morsi protesters were holding a sit-in in Tahrir Square and said they were planning another major protest Friday against Morsi's decree.
The Muslim Brotherhood, backers of the Morsi presidency, said it would hold nationwide demonstrations in support of the decree on Saturday.
A Supreme Court decision Sunday on the constitutional assembly will have no effect technically because Morsi's decree made all of his decisions immune from judicial review. But a ruling to dissolve the assembly can raise doubts among Egyptians about the legitimacy of the constitution, said Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, a think tank.
"Sunday is still being treated as a deadline," Hamid said.
The final draft constitution was released to the public for the first time Thursday, appearing online, after various versions of drafts over the past several months have become available. Article 2 bases legislation on the "principles" of Islamic law – the same as Egypt's 1971 constitution. The assembly approved the article Thursday and was scheduled to vote on the others.
Mohamed El Mekkawi, a member of the foreign relations department in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, the party of Morsi, said the decree is about preventing the allies of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak from hanging on to power.
"We are in a transition period and in this transition period there are a lot of problems concerning a lot of people, points of views… so this influences how people will react," he said. "It's about the old regime wanting to return again and say 'Morsi cannot be president anymore.'"
Some of Morsi's supporters say the president had to issue the decree to prevent the courts from trying to dissolve the nation's Islamist-dominated constituent assembly, which is drafting a new constitution that will call for some form of Islamic law.
The courts dissolved the first constituent assembly and the Islamist-dominated parliament in June based on legal arguments. Morsi's new decree guarantees the assembly will stay in place – outraging some who are displeased with the new draft constitution.
Members of the 100-member constitutional committee who opposed some of the Islamist demands walked out of the committee.
El Mekkawi said that the decree is "like you are throwing a stone in stale water," breaking the impasse over the drafting process.
Egyptian blogger Ghaly Shafik said the courts suspended their work because judges believe their interests are threatened. It doesn't mean the opposition forces and the judges are united, he said.
The judges, "said nothing during Mubarak's dictatorship, so why should I side with them now? They didn't turn into angels overnight, so I don't care about what they do," he said. "The only people who I trust are the people who took to the streets yesterday."
Clashes between some protesters and police continued Wednesday off Tahrir Square, near the U.S. Embassy. The liberal opposition has said it would not enter a dialogue with the president about the country's latest political crisis before Morsi rescinded his decrees. Activists planned another massive rally on Friday.
"What happened yesterday – this is the real revolution," said Fouad about Tuesday's protest against the decree and Morsi.
"We can't resolve this problem until we reach a boiling point," Fouad said. "But we don't want blood in the streets, but unfortunately I think there will be."
The constitutional court was due to rule Sunday on the legality of the lower chamber and the 100-member panel drafting a new constitution. The court denounced Morsi's claim that it was part of a "conspiracy" against him.
"The allegation that the (June) ruling was reached in complicity with others to bring down elected state institutions and consequently the state's collapse … is incorrect and untrue," the constitutional court said in a statement read by its deputy chairman, Maher Sami, in a televised news conference.
"But what is most saddening for the court's judges came when the president of the republic joined, in a painful and cruel surprise, the continuing attacks against the constitutional court," it said.
