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Photo by Heba Farouk Mahfouz. the Presidential Palace in Cairo, December 7
[AWR Cairo 12 December]
In these recent weeks all eyes were focussed on Egypt.
A special decree announced by President Mursīon November 22 sparked nationwide protests. With this decree, Mursī would have special sovereign powers to make decisions without the approval of the judiciary. The Friday after people understood the consequences and took to the streets en masse again.
Tuesday November 27, marches from all over Egypt reached Tahrir Square in a massive protest and Wednesday November 28 the Constituent Assembly, including former members, went into an all-night meeting deliberating on the vote for the draft constitution. Since there was no immediate consensus, the articles of the Constitution were voted on one by one. The draft constitution was approved by the Constituent Assembly on November 30. This enraged a large number of Egyptians: a decree with special powers for the president and a constitution written by a majority of Islamists not securing the rights of minorities.
 Friday, November 30 marked protests against the decree and the Constitution.
A protest from the side of the Islamists
was cancelled due to expected bloodshed. On Saturday, December 1st President Mursī announced that the Constitution
will be put to a referendum on December 15. The day after his announcement, judges had to approve the referendum,
but with the protests outside supporting
the decision of Mursī they were silent.
And again on a Tuesday, December 2 protests swelled and in addition to the gatherings at Tahrir, marches began to reach the Presidential Palace. Protests in other governorates unfortunately came with casualties. Until then, the protests in Cairo had been rather peaceful. Photo by Rawya Rageh, women yelling behind the barbed
wire at the presidential palace, December 4
Wednesday, December 5 showed a different kind of protest. Protesters against the decisions of President Mursī and his supporters clashed in front of the Presidential Palace. 8 people died, hundreds were wounded. Following these clashes, the Presidents’ aides, Ayman al-Sayyīd and Sayf 'Abd al-Fattāh resigned In a Thursday evening speech, President Mursī mentioned that the clashes were the fault of a third party, that the referendum would still be on 15 December, that he would be willing to change his decree and he invited all the political parties to the Presidential Palace on Saturday December 8. This last meeting was boycotted by the main opposition parties, among them the biggest, the National Salvation Front, leaving other, mostly Islamist, political figures in attendance. On the night of Saturday, December 8 and Sunday the announcement came that Mursī withdrew his decree of November 22, but the referendum is still set for December 15. With authorities to protect the state institution given to the military Sunday 9 and more protests announced by the opposition and the supporters, Egypt is on its way to the referendum.
Especially now, all initiatives to foster dialogue are important. Arab-West Report is hosting a delegation of the Dutch Orthodox-Reformed Party (SGP) for an introduction into Egyptian politics. Initially this Dutch delegation came to meet with Egyptian political parties and even though they were all very willing to cooperate, due to the recent events, they have other priorities. Events scheduled for the program are a visit to 'Izbit al-Hajānah with Dr. Najwah Ra'ūf of the Moral Rearmament Association, a meeting with Bishop Qultah, and training for Egyptian students together with Nisrīn Jum'ah.
In this newsletter you can find a report of the meeting with Dr. Muhammad Salāh from Huda TV at our Maadi office. Dr. Muhammad Salāh gave a presentation and answered questions from the audience regarding Salafism. Besides that you will find a link to the interview Cornelis Hulsman had with the Dutch website Bruggenbouwers on the work of Arab-West Report and his personal motives. On top of that, there is a meeting with former Minister of Religious Endowments, Dr. Muhammad Hamdī Zaqzūq, who gives his insight on the role of religion in politics, the current situation in Egypt, and his former career under three different Egyptian presidents. Lastly, Prof. Abdullah Schleiffer, former bureau chief at NBC Cairo and professor of Journalism at the American University in Cairo wrote an interesting and valuable recommendation to our work.
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