Egypt’s centre of Islamic learning, Al-Azhar, hosted Islamists and liberals on Wednesday at talks aimed at agreeing the principles of a new constitution for the country, Reuters reported.
The hosts had hoped to reach agreements ahead of the scheduled November elections but failed to end the differences, the report said.
Afraid that Islamist parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood or another Salafi party may win a majority in parliament, liberals have called for ‘constitutional principles’ to be laid down before the elections to ensure that should this happen, Islamists would not be able to create an Islamic state.
The country’s caretaker military regime has also said it will audit all political parties ahead of coming elections to ensure they conform to the nation’s party formation law - in particular the prohibition of forming political parties on religious basis.
Islamists, on the other hand, insist that the constitution must be drafted by the parliament.
Al-Azhar has drawn up an 11-point document as a proposed basis for the new constitution, Reuters reported.
The document was drafted by intellectuals and public figures and illustrates Al-Azhar’s vision of Egypt’s political future following the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in February.
The document suggests that Egypt be “a civil state governed by law and the constitution.” It also calls for respect of freedom of opinion, faith and human rights to be guaranteed.
The head of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, proposed in a statement quoted by Reuters that the draft become a “code of honor that everyone would commit to voluntarily.”
The meeting, however, failed to end the dispute between the two sides.
“The Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood have not agreed to have ‘constitutional principles’ before the elections because they believe that the coming vote will produce a parliament controlled by them, hence they would be able to impose their religious views,” Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah told Reuters.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the most feared of the Islamist parties as it is well-organized compared to other parties.
The group has already created a broad super-coalition of opposition parties in hopes of taking Egypt's next government by storm. The group’s leaders have publicly stated they would implement Muslim Sharia law in Egypt should they take office.
Wednesday’s meeting was attended by presidential candidates Amr Mousa, former head of the Arab League, and Mohamed El Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Also in attendance were the heads of the Muslim Brotherhood and the liberal Wafd and Democratic Front parties, among others.