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Egyptian Scholars Warn Against Removing Shari`ah

Egyptian Scholars Warn Against Removing Shari`ah

Following growing calls by "certain quarters" for removing the Constitutional Article about Shari`ah as a source of legislation in Egypt, some 110 Egyptian scholars and men of thought warned such a move could violate societal harmony, considering Shari`ah a red line never to be crossed. “Such calls put at stake social peace in Egypt,” warned a statement signed by the intellectuals and circulated Wednesday, October 19, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net. “At a stage of significant developments both on the local and international arenas, and amid calls for real reform in Egypt, a foray of groundless criticism of Islam and Islamic Shari`ah is taking place, under foreign interference, in a bid to cancel article 2 of the Constitution,” the statement reads. The Egyptian Constitution’s second article reads: “Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Islamic Shari`ah is a main source of legislation.” Calls by some parties to scrap the constitutional article on Islamic Shari`ah have come to the surface recently, coinciding with calls for change and reform in the Arab country. The calls have mainly been championed by secular, leftist and Coptic thinkers. In a separately related matter, some Egyptians, hopeful of forming new political parties, declared they would apply to the political parties committee at the Shura Council. These included a Coptic and Pharaonic parties. The representative of the Mother Egypt Party, Mohsen Lotfi Al-Sayed, a nephew of renowned late writer and thinker Ahmed Lotfi Al-Sayed, said his party champions Pharaonic Egypt, rather than Arab or Islamic affiliations. The party calls for reviving Egypt’s Pharaonic heritage and character rather than any reference in the constitution to Arab or religious backgrounds.

"The Egyptian Constitution Should be Amended to Remove Islam as the Official Religion"

The Egyptian author Dr. Nawal Al-Sa'dawi called for amending the Egyptian constitution and eliminating the article that declares Islam to be the official state religion, 'because we have among us Copts, and because religion is a matter between man and God and no one has the right to impose his faith, his God and his rituals on others. Therefore, I am one of the die-hard opponents of a religious state, because our God should not be involved in politics in any fashion.

posted by Unknown @ 12:35 PM