Freedom and Justice Party Endeavors for Broader, Stronger Consensus in Charter-Writing Assembly

Freedom and Justice Party Endeavors for Broader, Stronger Consensus in Charter-Writing Assembly

In an article entitled ‘Constitution Crisis’, Dr. Rafiq Habib, Presidential Adviser and Vice-Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said: "Since the first draft of the constitution was officially published, controversy rages not over the draft document, but the Constituent Assembly (CA) itself. Most critics have no desire to discuss the document’s content, which seems to be indeed good, reflecting Egyptian society with an excellent degree of popular consensus.


"FJP leaders sought national accord, and accepted many ideas and visions that were not originally compatible with their own. As a result, the first draft has a lot of views that are completely different from FJP leaders’ original choices and preferences as declared before the CA began its work."


Habib further said: "Secular forces, which always clamor the loudest, totally refuse the idea that the constitution could be written by anyone other than themselves. They refuse to see the new constitution win the people’s approval, something which would be envisaged as success for the Islamists. They also refuse to let the constitution be ratified without a loophole that allows them to restrict or drain ‘Islamic Reference’ of all content and meaning".