Egypt

President hails new Egyptian constitution

The Irish Times, by Michaelk Jansen, December 27--excerpt

 

Riot police stand guard as the Shura Council meets in Cairo. Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has criticised violence which marred the run-up to the constitutional referendum. Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has said Egypt is experiencing a “new dawn” following the adoption of the post-uprising constitution which was signed into law on Tuesday.

 

The election commission confirmed its adoption by 64 per cent of Egyptian voters in this month’s referendum. While welcoming “differences of opinion,” Mr Morsi yesterday criticised violence which marred the run-up to the constitutional referendum.

“We must not go back to an Egypt where there is only one opinion,” he said, referring to autocratic president Hosni Mubarak’s period in office when dissent was met with force.

Economic challenges 

Mr Morsi said he would reshuffle his cabinet to meet the challenges confronting Egypt. The cabinet is headed by Hisham Kandil, a figure close to the Muslim Brotherhood, in which the president has his roots.

Mr Morsi attempted to conciliate critics in the judiciary who had castigated him for seizing power and putting himself above the law and called on the opposition to enter into national dialogue with the aim of drawing up a “road map” for the transition to “pluralistic democracy.” The opposition however has vowed to continue the struggle against Mr Morsi and the brotherhood.

His address followed a meeting of the fundamentalist-dominated upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, which has assumed legislative powers until a new lower house, the people’s assembly, is elected and inaugurated early next year.

The 270-member council, set up in 1980 as an advisory body, was asked to prepare for assembly elections, regulate the media and tackle corruption.

The assembly, elected last year, was dissolved in June and its powers appropriated by the military high command until last August, when the generals were ousted and full legislative and executive powers were taken by Mr Morsi.

Power grab 

While his handover to the Shura Council appears to re-establish the separation of legislative and executive powers, the move is unlikely to reassure the opposition which accuses the brotherhood of a power grab.

Instead, the transfer is certain to tighten the brotherhood’s grip on both branches, leaving only the judiciary relatively free from the movement’s grasp.

Council speaker Ahmad Fahmi is not only a member of the brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, but is also Mr Morsi’s relative.

Political analyst Gamal Zahran told Ahram online that the council had once again become a bastion “of regime loyalists, just like it was under [overthrown president] Hosni Mubarak. This time it is loyal to the brotherhood and its sycophants.”

Among Mr Morsi’s appointees are 42 outright fundamentalists and 19 fundamentalist-leaning independents who will bolster the fundamentalist bloc, giving it 75 per cent of council seats.

The new members include deputy head of Freedom and Justice Essam El-Erian, who has called for the formation of a new government under brotherhood tycoon, financier and strongman Khairat El-Shater.

He would be expected to implement the movement’s Nahda, or renaissance, agenda which involves the gradual “Islamisation” of Egypt.

The constitution, drafted by the brotherhood and ultra-orthodox Salafis, has split the country between fundamentalists and secularists.

Legitimacy 

Opponents contend that the document has no legitimacy because it lacks consensus since only a third of registered voters participated in the referendum.

Critics argue the document discriminates against Christians and women, grants autonomy to the military, enshrines the Muslim canon law, Sharia, and permits clerical interpretation of legislation.

via www.irishtimes.com

Egypt reserves plunge as economic crisis bites

 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank said it would start foreign currency auctions on Sunday to conserve reserves that have fallen to a critical level, pointing to a deepening economic crisis as President Mohamed Mursi tries to calm political turmoil.

The announcement was posted on the bank's website on Saturday just two hours after Mursi used a major policy speech to declare the economy was showing signs of improvement.
 

"This is a massive, massive setback for them," said an economist based outside Egypt. "If the Egyptian pound is no longer freely convertible, then you're bound to undo eight years of successful and effective currency management."

The central bank has spent more than $20 billion in foreign reserves to support the pound since a mass uprising against Hosni Mubarak in early 2011 chased away tourists and foreign investors.

Saturday's announcement underlined the scale of the economic test facing Mubarak's successor, whose administration has been grappling with the fall-out of a political crisis ignited by his move to drive through a constitution written by his Islamist allies.

Violent street protests and political wrangling over the last month have prompted a rush by investors and ordinary citizens to switch their Egyptian pounds into foreign currency on concerns the government might devalue or bring in capital controls.

The bank allowed the pound to weaken to an eight-year low of 6.188 to the U.S. dollar on Thursday. On Saturday it urged Egyptians to "rationalize their use" of foreign currency and not speculate against the pound.

Addressing the upper house of parliament on Saturday, Mursi cited positive indicators including a return of tourists and an increase in annual economic growth in the third quarter to 2.6 percent from 1.8 percent a year earlier - still well below the rates of 5 to 7 percent reached before the uprising.

He also cited a $1.1 billion rise in foreign exchange reserves to $15.5 billion from July to November.

But the central bank said reserves fell by $448 million in November to only $15.04 billion, 60 percent down on their level on the eve of the uprising that swept president Hosni Mubarak from power in February 2011.

This is barely enough to cover three months of imports, and bankers said the December figure, due for release in the first week of January, could be even worse.

"The current level of foreign currency reserves represents the minimum and critical limit," the bank said in its statement.

"This requires their conservation for critical uses, as represented in fulfilling foreign debt obligations to preserve Egypt's reputation in international financial markets and to cover imports of strategic commodities," it added.

It said the auction system for buying and selling U.S. dollars would start on Sunday, but gave few details on how it would work.

INTERNATIONAL HELP

Egypt won preliminary approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November for a $4.8 billion loan, but delayed seeking final approval until January after it suspended implementation of a series of tax increases.

Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed said on Saturday Egypt had received a final $500 million installment of funds promised by Qatar as budget support and would get another $500 million from 

Turkey at the end of January.

The central bank said Egypt would continue to meet installments and interest payments on its foreign debt and allow transfers by foreigners who had invested on the stock exchange.

It said the banking system's finances remained "strong and secure" but called on Egyptians to "rationalize their use" of foreign currency and not to speculate.

Mursi, whose speech was televised live, said some economic indicators had improved "despite the government's working in difficult circumstances and the huge challenges facing the Egyptian economy".

He played down the significance of a move by credit agency Standard & Poors' to cut Egypt's long-term debt rating on Monday, saying it was not the first downgrade since the uprising. Standard & Poors' said another downgrade was possible if politics undermined efforts to prop up the economy and public finances.

The economist said the central bank statement could indicate it believed the IMF agreement was not going to happen in January.

"Or it may mean that the central bank is trying to force the government's hand to get the IMF deal done by demonstrating just how catastrophic and precarious a situation they're in."

Elected in June in Egypt's first free and fair presidential election, Mursi said the approval of Egypt's new constitution in a referendum held this month had drawn a line under the transitional period that followed Mubarak's removal from power.

Yet Mursi faced heavy criticism and deadly street protests set off by the way his administration fast-tracked a constitution despite the objections of important sections of society, including the Christian minority.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Tom Perry and Patrick Werr; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

 

 

Brotherhood's politics may mean short term gains and long term losses

Via Eygpt Independen by Noha El Hennawy; excerpt--read on. 

Virginie Nguyen

Experts on Islamist movements and democratization have long held that Islamist groups, if they are allowed to engage freely in the political system, tend to make significant ideological concessions, adopt democratic values, and act pragmatically. 

Repeatedly referred to in these discussions is the example of the Turkish Islamist movement that culminated in the emergence of the Justice and Development Party. The party recognizes secularism, and this is taken as evidence to show that when Islamists are allowed to compete for power democratically, they find enough incentives to give up some dogma, reaching out to a wider base.

By the same token, these studies held that Arab authoritarianism was a major impediment to the moderation of Islamist groups. The lack of any prospect for rotation of power provides zero incentive to Arab Islamists to move towards the center of the political spectrum.

Then the Arab Spring came along, putting these theories and hypotheses to the test.

Looking back at the performance of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, these arguments show themselves to be somewhat simplistic.

While in 2011, the group had drawn on a more secular discourse seeking to position itself among liberal and leftist democratic forces in the wake of Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, this year witnessed a major regression in this regard. In their pursuit to assert their dominance against the military and the secular elites, the Brotherhood drifted further to the right, drawing once again on an overtly religious vocabulary. This dualism has exposed the group’s failure to develop a consistent political discourse that could help them build a larger constituency that goes beyond their conventional conservative support base.

From positive to repulsive

Soon after Mubarak’s ouster, the group sent a multitude of assurances to non-Islamists, Christians and Egypt’s western allies. Despite their apparent under-the-table deals with the military — turning many revolutionaries against them — the Brotherhood’s discourse was in no way alarming as far as the relationship between religion and state was concerned.

In the first post-Mubarak poll, it was not the Brotherhood who primarily used religious propaganda to entice voters to back the military-sponsored constitutional amendments. It was the Salafis who employed religion in their campaigns, questioning the faith of the amendments’ detractors, and arguing that a “yes” vote was a vote for Islam.

Even later, in the run-up to the November 2011 legislative elections, the Brotherhood took everyone by surprise when they dropped their old controversial slogan “Islam is the Solution” for a more secular catchphrase “We Bear Good for Egypt.” The slogan attested to the group’s attempt to reach out to a wider audience on concrete rather than divine grounds.

Yet, the year 2012 witnessed a flagrant reversion in the group’s electoral discourse. The Brotherhood’s presidential campaign was a revealing milestone.

The Brotherhood rescinded their initial decision not to field a presidential candidate at the last minute, some suggest, after the generals’ reluctance to cede any power to the Islamist-dominated Parliament became clear. For them, winning the presidency was a life-or-death question. Amid threats that the Supreme Constitutional Court would dissolve Parliament, the presidency was seen as the group’s lifeline in their quest to cement control.

via www.egyptindependent.com

Egypt court frees Mubarak-era senate chief on bail

Via el Arabiya 

Safwat al-Sherif, former senate leader under the Mubarak-era was bailed out on Tuesday by an Egyptian court. He was faced with charges of corruption and abuse of power during president Mubarak’s regime. (Reuters)

An Egyptian court on Tuesday freed the former senate leader under ousted president Hosni Mubarak on bail, after spending the maximum permitted 18 months in jail awaiting his corruption trial, the official MENA news agency reported.

Safwat al-Sherif, one of the top-ranking members of Mubarak’s National Democrat Party, was allowed out on payment of the equivalent of $8,100.

He is one of several Mubarak-era officials facing charges of corruption and abuse of power.

In October he and other former regime officials were acquitted of charges of ordering horse- and camel-riders to attack protesters in Cairo during the country’s uprising.

Mubarak himself is serving a life sentence for the deaths of some of the 850 protesters in the revolution. He is appealing the conviction, and a court will decide on Jan. 13 whether or not to order a new trial.

via english.alarabiya.net

Egypt's tourist vendors growing ever more desperate as tourism tanks

Via The Province

Two foreign tourists appear to be the only visitors to Egypt's historic Giza Pyramids. The past few months have seen a drop in tourists to Egypt, scared off by scenes of protests and clashes over the constitution, in new pain to a crucial industry gutted over the past two years by domestic turmoil. Photograph by: Khalil Hamra , AP photo

CAIRO -- At Egypt's Pyramids, the desperation of vendors to sell can be a little frightening for some tourists.

Young men descend on any car with foreigners in it blocks before it reaches the more than 4,500 year-old Wonder of the World. They bang on car doors and hoods, some waving the sticks and whips they use for driving camels, demanding the tourists come to their shop or ride their camel or just give money.

In the southern city of Aswan, tour operator Ashraf Ibrahim was recently taking a group to a historic mosque when a mob of angry horse carriage drivers trapped them inside, trying to force them to take rides. The drivers told Ibrahim to steer business their way in the future or else they'd burn his tourist buses, he said.

Egypt's touts have always been aggressive - but they're more desperate than ever after nearly two years of devastation in the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

December, traditionally the start of Egypt's peak season, has brought new pain. Many foreigners stayed away because of the televised scenes of protests and clashes on the streets of Cairo in the battle over a controversial constitution.

Arrivals this month were down 40 percent from November, according to airport officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Tourism workers have little hope that things will get better now that the constitution came into effect this week after a nationwide referendum. The power struggle between Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the opposition threatens to erupt at any time into more unrest in the streets.

More long term, many in the industry worry ruling Islamists will start making changes like banning alcohol or swimsuits on beaches that they fear will drive tourists away.

"Nobody can plan anything because one day you find that everything might be OK and another that everything is lost. You can't even take a right decision or plan for the next month," said Magda Fawzi, head of Sabena Management.

She's thinking of shutting down her company, which runs two hotels in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and four luxury cruise boats on the Nile between the ancient cities of Luxor and Aswan. In one hotel, only 10 of 300 rooms are booked, and only one of her ships is operating, she said. She has already downsized from 850 employees before the revolution to 500.

via www.theprovince.com

Egypt’s economy will face tougher hurdles in 2013

Via Egypt Independent, by Amira Salah-Ahmed; excerpt only, so read on.

Reuters

Talk of economic recovery has all but gone silent in Egypt, replaced by doomsday predictions about the depths to which the country’s dire conditions will spiral.

While the foundations for a robust economy still exist, gross mismanagement continues to add stress to the country’s ailing finances and widening budget deficit. Much like in 2011, the economic turbulence of 2012 mirrored lapses in Egypt’s political transition, and the scenario is likely to carry on well into the coming year.

When asked about the main factor hindering recovery this past year, and which will continue to plague the economy moving forward, five experts cited shortcomings in top-level policy formulation, decision-making and the frailty of the political structure.

Answers ranged from the “volatile domestic political environment” to lack of leadership and vision, the “absence of the state” and, of course, the current state of polarization which is unlikely to be letting up anytime soon.

Angus Blair, founder of The Signet Institute, a Cairo-based think-tank on MENA economies, says, “I do not expect the political ‘noise’ to dampen any time soon given the clear polarization in society, politically, and the slower economy has created further economic problems.”

“The government’s economic plan is going to have to be more creative and brave to build domestic confidence and economic growth,” he adds.

Uncertainty loomed over the market and dented investor confidence in the months following the 25 January uprising, and was further dampened under the rule of the military council and the prolonged transition process. The light at the end of the tunnel — or so it seemed — was the promise of a free and fair election culminating with a democratically elected president who would steer the economy back on track.

What has happened instead is that this uncertainty has gone from hovering threateningly above the economic stratosphere to taking root, and in turn, has struck the core of the state’s finances.

via www.egyptindependent.com

Morsi’s Victory: But At What Cost to Egypt’s Future?

Via Mideast Posts, by Juan Cole

The Egyptian electoral commission on Tuesday signed off on the constitutional referendum, declaring that the country’s guiding legal framework had received a little over 63 percent of the vote. (It only got 56% in the first of two rounds, when the leftist, liberal and centrist opposition thought they had some chance of blocking it, but likely they did not so much bother to come out for the second round, which was conducted in more rural and conservative governorates. The overall turnout was a low 33%). The administrative court concurred.

The constitution is controversial because it was crafted by a constituent assembly with a religious, conservative majority and fundamentalists managed to insert wording that deliberately undermined civil liberties in favor of religious regimentation. On the surface, the constitution provides many liberties, but they are all made dependent on Sunni Muslim sharia or canon law, which can be used to take them back away.

Many in the left, liberal and centrist opposition pledged to work to repeal the articles of the charter to which they objected. But Amr Moussa, a leader of the anti-Morsi Council for National Salvation, proposed a truce between the opposition and fundamentalist President Muhammad Morsi, so as to allow the country to step back from its current extreme polarization. He asked Morsi to appoint a national unity government, putting members of the opposition in his cabinet. He also proposed postponing parliamentary elections for six months (presumably in order both to allow tempers to cool and to permit leftists, liberals and centrists time to organize to contest them).

Morsi in the meantime appointed 90 members to the 180-member upper house of parliament (the other 90 members had been elected in fall, 2011). Half of the members of this body are elected, and half appointed. Since Muslim fundamentalists dominated the elections last year this time, Morsi attempted to foster some good will by appointing many liberals this week, though the body is still dominated by Morsi’s allies.

By the newly passed constitution, the upper house of parliament now becomes Egypt’s legislature until the new lower house is elected in late February. One of the Assembly of Delegates’ duties will be to pass enabling legislation for 48 articles of the slapdash constitution that specify that statute is necessary to supplement the article. Another duty will be to set up hundreds of councils and commissions called for by the constitution, many of them duplicating already-existing councils and commissions.

This transition to a new legislative body is important because the Egyptian high court dissolved the elected lower house of parliament last June, because of electoral irregularities, and since then Egypt has had no proper legislative branch. It has, however, had several would-be legislators.

Just before Morsi was declared the winner late last June, the Egyptian officer corps declared that *it* would function as Egypt’s legislature until a new one was elected.

In mid-August, President Morsi issued an executive order abrogating that military prerogative, and he made several high-ranking generals retire from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He then promoted several more junior generals in their place, presumably having secured their agreement to go back to the barracks and cease interfering in civil politics.

After Morsi tried to put the military in its place, he more or less combined in himself the executive and legislative branches. In mid-November, he made this prerogative explicit, declaring his executive orders above judicial review.

Morsi appears to have gotten word just before his ‘constitutional decree’ that the supreme administrative court was planning to dissolve the Constituent Assembly that was drafting a new constitution, was planning to dissolve the upper house of parliament (which had not been struck down when the lower house was), and perhaps that it was planning to strike down his August 15 decree demoting the military from being the legislature.

Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood circle feared that Mubarak holdovers in both the judiciary and the officer corps were planning to roll back further what they saw as the electoral achievements of the post-Mubarak period, which had ensconced the Muslim Brotherhood in power, and to steal from the Brotherhood its chance to shape post-revolution Egypt.

Morsi’s ‘constitutional decree’ had the desired effect, of forestalling a judicial coup, but it backfired in alarming about half the country that in placing himself above the judiciary he was seeking to become a dictator. The judiciary is still largely on strike, and most judges refused to help oversee the referendum on the constitution, which the fundamentalist majority had hastily finished up once Morsi provoked the crisis.

Morsi was forced to back down on his new powers, and to pledge that once the constitution was passed, his constitutional decree would lapse.

It has now lapsed.

Despite the turmoil and mobilization provoked by his November 22 announcement, Morsi on the surface has won most of his goals. The army has not come back as legislature, and it has now been permanently supplanted in that role, first today by the upper house of the Assembly of Deputies, and then in a couple of months by the new elected parliament. The constituent assembly was not dissolved, as it likely was on the verge of being, and it was goosed into producing a constitution that has now become the law of the land. It is difficult to see what the Mubarak-appointed judges can any longer do about this, once they come back from their strike.

Most important, Morsi survived a popular challenge to his presidency, and he is in a position to continue to push for the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood, which functioned as his in-house national gang. The hastily-assembled constitution has tricky contradictions that over time can be deployed to impose a fundamentalist reading of Islamic law and practice on an Egypt so far characterized by a diversity of religious observance–from secularists and leftists, to traditionalists, to Sufis and just people not very interested in religion.

The legitimacy of the new constitution and of the state that will be founded on it, however, has been brought permanently into question. Morsi’s hamfisted way of proceeding has robbed Egypt of hope for stability in the near to medium term.

Egypt is deeply polarized, and there has been blood in the streets in Cairo and Alexandria. The Muslim Brotherhood has moved from a cadre organization to providing street thugs to attack leftist demonstrators, in a haunting evocation of what happened in revolutionary Iran in the early 1980s.

Still, with regard to power dynamics, Morsi has won.

Short of a military coup (which no one but the holdovers of the old regime wanted) or another mass revolution (hard to organize twice in a row in the space of a couple of years), the only course of action open to Morsi’s many critics now is to contest vigorously the February parliamentary elections and to work over the coming years to repeal the articles in the constitution to which they object. In short, they are now in a position similar to that of American liberals in the 1920s who wanted to repeal the 1921 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which made the sale and distribution of alcohol illegal. (To be clear, Morsi and his Brotherhood-based Freedom and Justice Party probably will not go so far as to forbid alcohol in Egypt, but have signalled that they will place heavy sin taxes on it).

The danger going forward is that large swathes of society will forgo electoral politics to engage in civil disobedience to protest fundamentalist or right wing elements of this constitution. For instance, the text allows labor unions and collective bargaining, but forbids more than one union for each trade. Depending on how the courts interpret this article, many workers could feel disenfranchised by being herded into an official union they don’t like. In turn, the 3000 strikes staged in the zeroes could be outstripped in this decade.

The language of the new constitution, which is crafted to as to allow prosecution of individuals for actions that are immoral under Islamic canon law but not necessarily illegal under civil law (i.e. consensual sex among single adults) contains the most severe dangers to Egyptian tourism, one of the country’s few sources of wealth. The country’s tourism industry is clearly terrified of this constitution and its implications for the sector. Tourism is way off because of the turmoil over the constitution, and Egypt’s economic woes are growing.

via mideastposts.com

Egypt pound falls as devaluation fears spread

 Via Reuters

Dec 26 (Reuters) - The Egyptian pound fell to its weakest in almost eight years as concerns the government might devalue or place restrictions on currency movements prompted citizens to pile into dollars, forex traders said.

Renewed political strife over the past month has thrown doubt on the ability of the government to push through a programme of spending cuts and tax hikes.

That is seen as a prerequisite for a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan that Egypt needs to tackle a financial crisis.

The turbulence prompted credit agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the country's long-term credit rating on Monday and warn of a possible further cut.

On Tuesday the government made it illegal for travellers to carry more than $10,000 out of the country.

"All customers are rushing to buy dollars after the downgrading," said a dealer at a Cairo-based bank. "We'll have to wait to see how the market will operate with the U.S. dollar, because as you know there is a rush at the moment."

The pound was bid as low as 6.1775 to the dollar compared to 6.169 on Tuesday. This was its weakest in almost eight years and close to its all-time low of 6.26 hit on Oct. 14, 2004.

Dealers said there were signs the central bank was selling dollars on Wednesday to keep the currency from weakening further. Trading was exceptionally heavy, boosted by orders left over from Tuesday, which was a bank holiday in Europe.

The central bank has spent more than $20 billion of its foreign reserves to support the pound since the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

Reserves fell by $448 million in November and stand at $15 billion, equal to only about three months of imports.

"Definitely there is pressure on the pound," said a dealer at a second bank. "If foreign reserves are much lower at the end of the month the central bank will have to lower the pound."

 

via www.reuters.com

Egypt Constitution Passes, Economic Crunch Looms

Via Time.com by Aya Batrawy and Sarah el Deeb

(CAIRO) — The official approval of Egypt’s disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress.

In a clear sign of anxiety over the economy, the turbulence of the past month and expected austerity measures ahead have some Egyptians hoarding dollars for fear the currency is about to take a significant turn for the weaker.

The battle over the constitution left Egypt deeply polarized at a time when the government is increasingly cash-strapped. Supporters of the charter campaigned for it on the grounds that it will lead to stability, improve the grip of Morsi and his allies on state institutions, restore investor confidence and bring back tourists.

“In times of change, politics are the driver of the economy and not the other way around,” said Mourad Aly, a media adviser for the political arm of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the backbone of Morsi’s presidency and the main group that backed the constitution.

(MORE: The Muslim Brotherhood and the New Egyptian Divide)

But there are already multiple fights on the horizon.

The U.S. State Department bluntly told Morsi it was now time to make compromises, acknowledging deep concerns over the constitution.

“President Morsi, as the democratically elected leader of Egypt, has a special responsibility to move forward in a way that recognizes the urgent need to bridge divisions, build trust, and broaden support for the political process,” said Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesman. “We hope those Egyptians disappointed by the result will seek more and deeper engagement. “

He said Egypt “needs a strong, inclusive government to meet its many challenges.”

After a spate of resignations of senior aides and advisers during the constitutional crisis, Morsi appeared to have lost another member of his government late Tuesday night when his communications minister posted on his Twitter account that he was resigning.

The minister Hany Mahmoud said he “couldn’t cope with the culture of government work, particular in the current conditions of the country.” The resignation could not be immediately verified because it came so late at night.

Morsi signed a decree Tuesday night that put the new constitution into effect after the election commission announced the official results of the referendum held over the past two weekends. It said the constitution has passed with a 63.8 percent “yes.” Turnout of 32.9 percent of Egypt’s nearly 52 million registered voters was lower than most other elections since the uprising nearly two years ago that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak

Morsi is expected to call for a new election of parliament’s lawmaking lower house within two months.

In the meantime, the traditionally toothless upper house, the Shura Council, will hold legislative power. But the chamber is overwhelmingly Islamist-dominated so any laws it passes could spark a backlash from the opposition. Many fear a legal crackdown on independent media, highly critical of Islamists.

In a bid to reach out to opposition, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said he hoped the charter will be a “good omen” for Egyptians.

“Let’s all begin to build the renaissance of our country with free will, good intentions and strong determination, men, women, Muslims and Christians,” Mohammed Badie said on his Twitter account.

(MORE: Who’s Afraid of a Constitution?)

But the opposition said the passing of the document is was not the end of the political dispute. Critics fear the constitution will usher in Islamic law in Egypt and restrict personal freedoms.

“This is not a constitution that will last for a long time,” said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, vowing to fight for more freedoms, social and economic rights.

In a sign that the new front for the opposition against Morsi’s policies may be the economy, Dawoud said the Morsi administration was “confused” both on the political and economic fronts.

“We want stability and economic prosperity like everybody else. But we don’t believe that the policies of Morsi and the Brotherhood will lead to more stability,” he said.

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/12/25/egypt-constitution-passes-with-63-8-percent/#ixzz2GAr0QQNX

 

via world.time.com

Artists and Islamists going head-to-head

Via Ahram Online, by Rowan El Shimi; read on.

Egypt's political Islamisation this year led to several conflicts between artists and Islamists through the media, in courts - and on the street

 

Keizer's street art with Om Kalthum saying 'Art is not a Sin' (Photo: Keizer's Facebook Page)

Islamists’ attack on arts and culture in Egypt since they came into power has manifested in several cases of conflict between Islamist sheikhs and politicians. The Islamist stances vary between accepting only “art with a purpose,” to not having an issue with art as long as some restrictions are put on nudity and controversial topics. The more extreme stance sees artistic expression as a form of Westernisation that promotes values not in line with Egyptian Islamic tradition. Not only did sheikhs attack the arts, but so was it attacked on the streets, where Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist supporters had direct confrontations with artists, at times even impeding them from their work.

 

Many artists, on the other hand, denounce Islamists' limitations, considering it not only an attack on freedoms gained by the revolution but also on Egyptian cultural heritage and identity. Artists retort with public statements, protests, court cases and direct confrontations.

At the start of 2012 on 23 January, Egypt's Islamist-dominated now dissolved parliament – with 70 per cent of its members scattered between members of Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist parties – inaugurated their very first parliamentary session. Outside parliament on the same day thousands of artists arrived from a march from the Cairo Opera House calling on the first people's elected parliament since the revolution to give utmost respect to freedom of creative expression. The contrasting scene did not end that January. A constant tug of war between artists and Islamist preachers and politicians ensued and continued throughout the year.

Street protests

The march on the day parliament had its first session was organised by the Freedom of Creativity Front; a coalition of artists and thinkers who vowed to defend freedom of creative expression in Egypt. Their movement was born from the concern over several televised statements by Islamist sheikhs and Parliamentary candidates on their stance on the arts and culture.

For example, the Salafist Call’s spokesman, Abdel-Moneim El-Shahat, called Nobel Winning writer Naguib Mahfouz an infidel and claimed his books promote homosexuality and atheism. El-Shahat also slammed pharaonic monuments saying they promote a culture that does not worship God, in addition to making statements on democracy being a sin.

“Freedom, whether of expression, social or political purposes, cannot be divided,” Iman El-Serafi, theatre director and member of the Front’s organisational committee told Ahram Online after the march. “We are against any form of monitoring, censorship or laws that limit creativity, except for the conscience of the artist,” he added, concluding that the people of Egypt who have come so far in the revolution have the ability to choose what kind of art and culture they want to be subjected to and no religious or governmental entity has the right to hold public custody in this regard.

The artists' march at the start of the year was one of many over 2012 where artists demonstrate for freedom of expression. This month, artists marched from Talaat Harb Square to the Tahrir Square sit-in showing their concern over Brotherhood rule in Egypt and the constitution that make a straight strike on freedom of expression, whether for artists or the press.

Artists staged a similar protest in August in Talaat Harb Square while the constitution was still being drafted against intimidation of members of the press as well as the constitution assembly's high Islamist domination.

These marches and stands, while they gather a lot of media attention, seldom have any effect on the decisions taken afterwards by the executive or legislative bodies of Egypt. The culture ministry, which has seen the minister of culture switched out several times and is now headed by Saber El Arab, hardly takes part in the ongoing crisis. Their silence is considered by many artists as complicity with - or even direct cooperation - the oppressive government.

Court cases

Last week Egyptian actress Elham Shahin won a case she filed in September against Sheikh Abdallah Badr who insulted her, along with several other actresses and filmmakers, saying she was "cursed and would never enter heaven" and accused her of acting in adulterous films. Badr was sentenced to one year in prison with bail set at LE 20,000 ($3,280). When the incident first broke out in September it caused an uproar among Egyptian artists ,who all met and vowed to support Shahin's stance on taking legal action against the sheikh.

 

via english.ahram.org.eg