Egyptian media are full of reports on the work of the current Constituent Assembly. On November 22, Arab-West Report met with Rev. Dr. Safwāt al-Bayādī, President of the Protestant Churches in Egypt and member of the Constituent Assembly. Arab-West Report had previously attended a conference of Egyptians in One Country and Egyptians against Religious Discrimination entitled, “The Constitution of a Modern Civil State”.

Rev. Dr. al-Bayādī occupies a special place in the current Constituent Assembly. He was not only a member in the previous Constituent Assembly, but is also one of the three Church representatives in the Assembly.  The other two Church representatives are Coptic Orthodox Bishop, Bola, and Coptic Catholic Bishop, Antonius, of Beni Suef. Furthermore, al-Azhar is represented with three delegates. The Salafī al-Nūr Party is represented with one seat. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has no representatives, but Dr. al-Bayādī believes at least one member of the Assembly to be in the Brotherhood: the chairman of the Medical Syndicate.

Members of the Constituent Assembly have been nominated by interim president, ‘Adly Mansūr. Unlike the previous Constituent Assembly, the composition of this Assembly represents a different type of diversity, with a much smaller number of Islamists than in the 2012 Assembly.

Dr. al-Bayādī listed some of the points where members have disagreed. Dr. al-Bayādī believes that the Constitution should specify that all citizens in Egypt are equal and hence the word “civil” should either appear in the first article of the Constitution or in the preamble of the Constitution. The member of the Nūr Party and the three Azhar representatives had great reservations here. Read more.

Cornelis Hulsman, Editor-in-Chief

Jayson Casper, Researcher

Ahmed Deiab, Research Intern

Arab-West Report