This constitution is a role model for all constitutions in the world , in fact humanity has not reached yet to that amount of freedoms and rights granted by that constitution

Dr. Hussein Hamad Hassan

The member of the constituent assembly

December 2012

No comment except may be on Friday I will write down why I refuse this constitution and believe it is not the best for Egypt

OK tomorrow insh Allah we will have the first round , the first stage of the most controversial referendum in the first half of the 21th century if I would say.

Now some trivia which probably you already know :

• The Constitution referendum will be held on two stages , on two days because of the number of judges. Most of the judges and prosecutors in Egypt refuse to oversee except couple of thousands thus it was better to hold it on two days according to the decision maker in Egypt whether the current Presidency or its superiors in Muslim brotherhood HQ. Ironically holding the referendum on two days will raise the matter of the constitution unconstitutionality !!!!
• Already according to Dostor Newspaper out of the 22,347 members of judiciary, only 5,772 agreed to supervise the referendum !! 
• The first stage will be held on December 15,2012 “tomorrow” in 10 governorates : Cairo , Alexandria , El Sharkia , El Gharbia , Dakhalia , Assuit, Sohag , Aswan , North Sinai and South Sinai.

• The second stage will be hold on December 22, 2012 “next week” in 17 governorates. These governorates are : Giza , Monufia , Qalubiya , Monufia , El Baheira , Kafr El Sheikh, Damietta, Ismailia, Port Said, Suez , Marsa Matrouh, Red Sea, New Valley , Fayoum , Bani Sawif , Al Maniya , Luxor and Qena.
• The Egyptians abroad vote will end tomorrow after 4 days of voting.
• The results should be announced on the same day and the voting will start from 8 PM.
• There will 351 General committees divided in to 9334 electoral committees that are divided in to 13,099 sub electoral committees.
• The armed forces will secure the referendum with 120,000 officer and soldier besides 6,000 armored vehicles besides the police force !!
• Now not only the armed forces and police will secure the committees but also the members of Al Gama’a Al Islamiyaa will secure the committee !!!! Al Gama’a Al Islamiyaa supports the draft constitution !!!!!!!
• Carter Center will not supervise the referendum yet local observers began to organize themselves calling the citizens to be careful for any attempts of cheating and so on.
• The results will be based on the rule : 50%+1 regardless of the number of the voters

Now Robert Becker did this amazing quick and short analysis about the round 1 constitutional governorates based on the previous elections results. It is a must read post.

It is not the first constitution draft to be forced on the people causing such controversy among the public in very critical time. If you are a good reader to our modern history , you will know that we change our constitution as much we change our flag and ruler. The 1971 Constitution was longest surviving Constitution not for any reason except that Mubarak did not want a headache.

I still got some time to write my remarks about the Draft Constitution , already my voting turn will be on December 22,2012 as I am from Giza.

Anyhow I would like to share with you these videos on why many Egyptians including me refuse this draft constitution.

This video is from Mosireen with English captions speaks about the neglect the right to the city  despite we face a huge problem when it comes to shanty towns in almost all over the country and in its major cities.

By the way Strong Egypt Party also refused this constitution for neglecting this right as part of the social justice.

This video is about the freedom of press. It is not  translated unfortunately. The speakers are Ahram Online’s editor in chief  Hany Shukrallah and journalists syndicate’s board member Alaa El Attar

Now when it comes to freedom of Press , well this is the most unfriendly constitution I would imagine when it comes to freedom of press after #Jan25 revolution.

According to article No.48 Newspapers, channels and websites can be closed by a court orders so easily. Already the article is too vague.

Ironically in Constitution 1971 newspapers can not be closed by court orders !!

Also this draft constitution did not ban the imprisonment of journalists in publishing related crimes. I remember that Mohamed Mahsoob once promised to include this article in the constitution but you know !! The MB leading members already said that journalists should not have any privileges compared to other professions.

Moving to Al Azhar’s position

Article No.4 states the supreme scholars committee of Al-Azhar, the country's highest Islamic institution, should be consulted on all matters relating to Sharia. Many expressed their fear that this gives the religious institution the right to meddle in the law-making process as well a complete control over religion. You must think in the future that Al Azhar could be controlled by radicals.

You can read more about the religious aspects of the draft constitution in that report by Nada Rashwan in Ahram Online.

To Article No.62 related to the right of healthcare , here is a video from No for the Constitution campaign that is translated to French.

The State obliges to provide healthcare and health insurance according to a high quality fair system and to be free for those who are incapable to afford it !!

How can the state determine who is capable to afford this healthcare and who is not !? Are we going back again to the infamous poverty certificate !?  What kind of logic is that !?

Already Egyptian doctors like Mona Mina who are struggling to have some National health insurance system like in UK fear that this constitution will open the door to private the health insurance.

Now this video from Strong Egypt Party and it presents why it refuses the draft constitution.

There are more to raise and I know we got no time.

Despite there were no Muslim victims in the horrible Newtown school’s horrible massacre , the local Muslim community participated in the interfaith vigil service yesterday.

I think our preachers and sheikhs should learn from that young sheikh and to understand carefully to what he said because I believe this is the core of Islam.His small speech is actually a lesson we should learn from

May all the victims rest in peace.

I got many ideas and theories about the problem of the Muslim brotherhood currently in Egypt and I decided to share these ideas , they are not organized in a professional way

The Muslim brotherhood and being a secret organization :

The MB is facing a huge problem now , it officially rules the country through a president and Shura council yet it does not want to act as a transparent political party open for criticism as well to renew its ideas or its methods and techniques. This problem is resulted from the fact we are speaking about a political religious underground organization that managed to survive in Egypt for 80 years thanks to its secrecy.

The MB is not used to be open nor transparent. In fact it is hard for that group to be open for real transparent political partisan activity in two years after 80 years of working in darkness. I will dare to say that the Freedom and Justice Party can not be separated for this reason. The MB is its backbone , brain and heart.

Due to its secrecy , it  is not used to be open from criticism , in fact it is not used to democracy when it comes to decision making as it claims. Of course they will claim that they elect their Supreme guide bla bla bla , well the ruling party in China also elect its leader !! 

So you got this problem , they do not only have a Shura council but rather a president under the spot light while they maintained most of their life in darkness except what they wanted to show the world in time of Mubarak as PR.

We got a a religious ideological group that based on complete blind obedience to your superiors , if anyone opposes this or even tries to think with his mind than he is being punished and considered an enemy to the MB and this is why the MB and Mohamed Morsi’s presidency staff can not tolerate any kind of opposition. This is why you find the MB is shocked at the moment of opposition of the street and believes that it is not the correct type of opposition.

Being a secret organization that faced a lot of undeniable oppression in the past resulted in having that on going feeling even within the youngest member who was born in early 1990s that the whole universe is plot against them as it was represented in the famous tweet once posted by @Ikhwanweb “why do you hate us”

The secrecy of the Muslim brotherhood as well years of oppression leading to mistrust made the leaders of the brotherhood regard an outsider as potential enemy not even an outsider. This is what they teach to their young members.

Single Ruling party mentality

The Muslim brotherhood and its political arm “Freedom an Justice Party” would have succeeded in ruling Egypt in those few months in the way they wanted if they had been in times of dictatorship and one single party rule. Actually if you think about it the MB itself is being raised “after the Coup of 1952” and lived most of its life in the single party’s dictatorship rule regardless of its military nature. This is why it is often to hear the MB members and supporters wonder boldly on how the opposition was not that vocal during the time of Mubarak. The MB still believes that after 25 January revolution with that huge revolution in telecommunications that the ruler of Egypt will be idolized and obeyed.

Democracy is only a means

Democracy is only a means for the Muslim brotherhood in order to get to the rule , it is a fact. Unlike other parties , the guidance office and the Shura council “who are currently dominated by Qutbists” do not allow anyone to think outside the box to have a voice in the brotherhood and the examples of the defectors whether from leading members like Abu El Fotouh or Mokhater Noah or even young members like Ahmed Samir or Islam Lotfy are enough. Taking in consideration these are examples of men who wanted to be open on other political groups.

Only from few years women were granted the right to participate in the brotherhood’s internal elections and based from what I see and read from their women’s icons , their idea about the role of women in the society is conservative one.

Country Side Vs. City and Salafism’s effect

Late Hossam Tammam , the famous researcher in Islamist affairs made a series of studies about the Muslim brotherhood before his death last year which I believe everybody should read and understand. He believed that the guidance office and Shura council are being controlled by that conservative trend coming from country side which is closed to Salafism unlike the past. Already we are not only speaking about the leading members in the guidance office or Shura council like Khairat El Shater “A Qutibist”  but the majority of the MB members for instance in Nile Delta. Their own interpretation of Islam is closer to Salafists

of course this is being hidden from Western media because the MB’s guidance office wants.

This point can help us to understand that amazing semi-alliance between Salafists and Muslim brotherhood. Of course this alliance is too fragile and the MB’s leading members know it because unlike MB , the Salafists are not centralized and it is enough to know that some Salafists think the MB is not Muslim enough. 

This besides the fact that many of the Salafist preachers are state security men that used to spy on each other and actually the Salafist trend was being enforced to hit the MB politically through competing over religious based vote. The MB did not forget that.

I will stop here because I feel so tired , I believe that there are points should be highlighted , may be next time.

In the past two years Egyptians proudly have made TV history unlike any other Arab country when you think about :  live fights , ex-President trials , extreme dirty smears , presidential debates  and interesting interviews with girls who bleed blood and thugs yet none of them reached to that low level of Gamal Marwan.

Gamal Marwan , the owner of Melody TV channels has just released an ad ; the ad of his divorce from his wife Jihan in the most humiliating insulting way ever !! He mentions that he divorced her and paid a pound for every day she spent with him shocking divorce documents in most disgusting way !!!

This ad which is aired on Melody TV channels all day has been posted online in Melody official YouTube channel. I will not wonder on how Gamal Marwan can do this but I wonder how a father would do such thing to his children. I believe he got 4 kids from his wife Jihan. The youngest was born last year !!

You know it is not humiliating to her as much it is humiliating to him.

This is the lowest thing for real when You think about it , you hit rock bottom for real !!

Update :

Now I remember it , this is Gamal Marwan who refused to admit that he is a father of a child from some Lebanese singer in 2010 in some big scandal. Gamal Marwan is a big jerk and asshole. This is the conclusion.

There are many reasons why I should say NO to the draft constitution like the fact we became a presidential state despite it was better to have a semi-presidential state , the President got no vice president and Shura council got more power than the people’s assembly. Still there is one article that makes me want to say big “NO” , article no.76 .

Article No.76 states the following :

No punishment without a legal or constitutional text 

This is the first time in the world and history according to constitution experts that we got those words “and Constitutional text”

In Constitution 1971 article no.66  was as followed :

No punishment without legal text

Now this alteration in the article allows directly judges to ignore the law and go directly for Islamic Sharia or rather to be accurate for their own interpretation of Sharia based on that Sheikh from Salafists or this Sheikh from Al Azhar.

Article No.2 says that the Principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation already so I do not know if this means that judges will go for the principles or for the rules. Of course we will have another debate about the word “Principles” but according to all legal experts who are against the alteration fear that can for judges the doors to go directly to Sharia with all the debates about its rules.

This article has been modified by the Salafists above them Yasser El Borhami who confessed that he and other Salafists manipulated with words to get what they wanted. He bragged in a video on how he altered it and why he altered it :

There was an article in [the 1971] constitution stating no punishment without a legal text. But we objected to this article and were able to change it to ‘no punishment without a legal or constitutional text’ because if it had remained in the original format, consensual adultery, homosexuality, and usury would not be punished, as they are currently not prohibited by law

With my due respect to those conservatives in Egypt but I believe the Sharia is already implemented in the Personal Issues and families laws from a long time and we are not secular country like Tunisia or Turkey that is finding its way back to Islam after decades of radical secularism. I believe already Sharia will be misused in the hands of those radical conservatives who are already representing the biggest danger on Islam and Egypt now !!

The man for all seasons who used to attack the Muslim brotherhood directly on National TV during the time of Mubarak and whom our current president now used to warn his brothers from aka Essam Sultan the member of the Constituent assembly defends this article. He claims that this article is altered because there are some crimes punishable in the constitution like torture and so on adding that it talks to the legislator  !!!

I am not convinced at all with explanation because torture was also criminalized in 1971 and we did not have this addition plus I understand Arabic very well to know that this article is about legislation !!

The fact that this comes from Essam Sultan makes me already uncomfortable !!

To represent counter view , here is Judge Ahmed Abu Shosha “A reformist judge” who believes that article with that new alteration will allow the executive authority represented in the president to issue decrees regulations that can be regarded laws and sources of punishment. I do not know if I translated what he is saying in Arabic as it should or not.

By the way I know  that this draft constitution will be approved but it does not matter because insh Allah it will be downed even after couple of years. Anyone bothered to read the Modern Egyptian history will know this.

Cairokee sings parts of Abdel Rahman El Abnudi’s famous 1981 poem “We are the people”

I am not big fan of Cairokee and God knows I had to listen to this song several times to get used to Amir Eid’s soft voice while singing these strong words about oppression, people and Egypt.

It is translated by the way.

Just like the president who appointed him , Talaat Abdullah Egypt’s current public prosecutor decided to withdraw on Thursday his resignation which he presented to the supreme council of judiciary last Monday.

Now according to sources Abdullah was convinced by the Muslim brotherhood judges/ “Judges for Egypt” to withdraw his resignation. He claimed that he decided to withdraw the resignation to preserve the respect of his position !!! He also added that he was forced to resign by a small a group of district attorneys !! Suddenly he discovered this on Thursday !!!!

Ironically on Monday he told Al Hayat Al Youm TV show live that he resigned to preserve the respect of that position !!

To be honest I did not have high hopes when I heard that he will resign after Sunday.

Before you waste your time giving me lecture about how great Abdullah is “Please check his record in Bahrain’s uprising” , you must understand that I will not accept after the revolution a public prosecutor appointed by Morsi who interferes in the work of the district attorneys.

Dear Ali Hisham is from young generation of bloggers in Egypt. He is 15 years old and one of the most active young activists Mashallah I have seen since 2011.

Ali is speaking about the new draft Constitution and why we should refuse it. Ali is from the generation that will be affected more by this constitution.

He is being interviewed by TV host Namees Arnous for Bokra TV

Ok tomorrow can be the end of the world as we know , tomorrow we will have the second round of the constitution referendum. In this stage we will have : Giza, Qalubiya,Monufia, El Behaira, Kafr El Sheikh, Damietta, Ismailia, Suez, Port Said, Red Sea, New Valley, Fayoum , Matrouh, Bani Sawif , Maniya, Luxor and Qena.

The big voting blocs this time will be in Monufia and Giza.

I do not have high hopes. There will be more violations and elections fraud I am fraud.

I will be live blogging but not from the street. Last time I got terrible flu that I am trying to recover from it up till now.

Here is live coverage for the second stage of the constitution referendum , already I am going to vote today insh Allah.