Egypt: SCAF calls for dissolution of constitutional council over concerns of Islamist dominance (VIDEO)
An Egyptian man holds an anti-SCAF (Suprem Council of Armed Forces) placard as hundreds of protesters demonstrate outside the Egyptian parliament building against the current Constitution Drafting Committee on March 28, 2012 in Cairo. Liberal and leftist parties have pulled out of a panel drafting Egypt’s new constitution, they announced on March 27, accusing Islamists of monopolizing the process that will deliver the country’s post-revolution charter.
Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has called for the dissolution of a parliament-appointed committee that is charged with drafting a new constitution, Bikya Masr reported.
The report comes as concerns over the agenda of the group mounts. According to NPR, the democratically-elected parliament, which is 70 percent Islamist, selected the constitutional council, "which is widely expected to enshrine Islamic law."
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Some have criticized the Muslim Brotherhood's recent reversal of a promise not to run a candidate in May's presidential elections, Reuters wrote. "They don't stick to promises. I regret giving them my vote, that won't happen again," Ramadan Ahmed, 38, a Brotherhood voter, told the news wire.
The Financial Times wrote that Egypt's Coptic Christians withdrew from the constitutional panel, saying participation amidst Islamist "domination" made their input "pointless."
The Islamist-dominated constitutional council says it wants to maintain a secular state, but some liberals do not believe their words. Khaled Fahmy, head of the History Department at the American University in Cairo, said the promise is just an attempt to "placate" the population.
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"The only thing they say to placate public opinion is that 'we understand, we are not going to do this suddenly, we will take it step by step,' and beneath this placating language, in my mind, is a huge condescending attitude toward Egyptian society," he said, according to NPR.
Below is a video about the news from Al Jazeera English.
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