In Egypt, Is There a Revolution II?

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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Yes.  The volcanoes in Tahrir and elsewhere have erupted again.  And with clashes came casualties.  The scenes give the impression that the January 25 Revolution has not yet spent itself.  But why?

The only clear answer which may not be the only answer is that “the Mother of the Arab Spring” is weary of the intentions of the SCAF (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces).  Having lived under a military dictatorship since July 23, 1952, the 90-million strong Egyptians are trying to show the SCAF the exit door.  They are hungry for the pre-1952 Egypt: a multi-party democracy which was anchored in the 1923 Constitution, but this time without the King.

But the SCAF has not said that it wants to stay beyond the elections, perhaps in 2013, of a President.  What seems to have caused the eruption is the ambiguity of the SCAF declarations.  That ambiguity has expressed its content in rumors.  It is well known that in the absence of credible information, resulting from dictatorship, rumors acquire the force of established facts.

Other factors have compounded the dangers of the November 18 eruptions or Revolution II: the hesitant decision-making by the civilian government of Dr. Essam Sharaf, whose resignation might become a reality.  The populace accuses it of being a rubber stamp for the SCAF.  Though the Sharaf Cabinet includes a Minister for Democratic transformation, Dr. Aly El-Salamy, the march towards the promised land of democracy looks to the anxious public as moving at snail’s pace.

On top of that, one finds a genuine apprehension of the emergence of the new Egypt as a religious entity.  Though the Egyptians, whether Muslims or Copts, are by nature a religious people (monotheism began in Egypt under Akhenaton thousands of years ago), there is fear of the eventual assumption by the so-called “Islamists” of power through the upcoming elections.  Both the Copts and the liberal parties are genuinely concerned about this eventuality.  Such a development would also be abhorrent to women who have reasserted their role, through the Arab Spring, in Egyptian civil society.

It should be also noted that Al-Azhar (the Glorious) has asserted in its document of August 17, drafted by both Muslim and Coptic leaders, that “Islam does not recognize State based on religion.”  But such assurances have been overwhelmed by yet other immediate concerns, namely, the role of the military in the Egypt of the future.

Suspicion of the SCAF, whether rightly or wrongly, is rooted in an article in what is now called “The Declaration of Principles of the Constitution of Modern Egypt.”  That article, “Article 9” states among other things that: “… The Armed Forces have a special status and have their own detailed concerns which relate to national security, and which have to be taken into account when considering their technical matters and budget…  The Armed Forces shall have their Supreme Council which is charged with the exclusive responsibility of considering all their concerns.  The views of that Supreme Council shall be sought in all legislation affecting the Armed Forces before the promulgation of such legislation…”

Article 9, therefore, looks to the millions in Tahrir and elsewhere in Egypt, as creating an exceptional status for the Armed Forces by putting them either above civilian authority or parallel to that authority.  Democratic Egypt rejects such interpretation although the document containing it says that these articles are only “Constitutional Guidelines.”  This is again another cause for concern agitating the masses which call for the establishment of a Constituent Assembly after the parliamentary elections.  The task of the Constituent Assembly is the drafting of a new Constitution.  Thus Tahrir asks: “Why have Guidelines at all” to the basic law document which should be left for its elected authors?

There are even further concerns for the Tahrir masses.  These masses say: “Why has that Document replaced the term a secular State by the term a democratic State?”

In the midst of all these ambiguities, arguments, demonstrations and casualties including fatalities, the biggest concern now is: “In which direction is the Egyptian Revolution --- the Mother of the Arab Spring --- heading??”

The Road to the Future Runs Through Reconciliation

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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In Cairo, the Council of State adopted earlier this month a historic judicial ruling.  It stated that former members of the now defunct Democratic National Party (DNC) (the one party which ran Egypt under Mubarak) were eligible to compete as independents or members of newly-formed parties in the parliamentary elections to be held later this November.

The ruling signaled that the Egyptian Revolution, in spite of anxiety about the future role of the SCAF (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) in Egypt's governance, is shunning revenge.  It was a declaration of revolutionary modernity whereby the Tahrir uprising is seeking to be inclusive of all Egyptians.  What added to the significance of the action taken by the Council of State is that its ruling overturned a prior judgment by a lower court in Mansoura (the Delta, west of the Suez Canal) which banned all those who belonged to the DNC from all forms of political participation.  The lower court has reasoned that the DNC, having been the tool of "political corruption" (i.e. dictatorship) under the Mubarak regime, all of those who carried its membership card were culpable.

It is to be noted here that one of the first acts of the January 25 revolutionaries was to burn to the ground the headquarters of the DNC, a magnificent building overlooking the Nile.  With that building went the hypocritical sign on it that declared to all Egyptians, "We Are for You."  Interpretation by the Egyptian masses: "They Are Not for Us."

The Deputy President of the Council of State, Dr. Mahmoud El-Attaar, in explaining the legal underpinning of that historic act of national reconciliation referred to an earlier decision by Egypt's High Constitutional Court issued on June 1, 1986.

In that decision the Constitutional Court nullified the constitutionality of an earlier law adopted in 1978 through a plebiscite declaring all those who belonged to any political party prior to the 1952 Revolution (the Nasser Coup d'etat) are disenfranchised.  The reasoning for the 1978 law was the same as the reasoning for the ruling of the lower court (in Mansoura) which was stricken out of the books by the Council of State in November 2011, namely: corrupting political life.

But the giants of the Egyptian judiciary and the great judicial publicists like the late Dr. Waheed Raafat and the late Dr. Farouk Abdel-Barr, who belonged to the school of our beloved and departed Dr. Al-Sanhouri objected to the 1978 law, disregarding the results of that plebiscite as pure dictatorial manipulation of the popular will.

The line of Egyptian judicial continuum from nullifying the law of 1978 to striking down the ruling of a lower court in Mansoura was as follows: "These laws deprive Egyptian citizens from exercising their civil and political rights under the Constitution."  It went on to say in the words of Counselor Mahmoud El-Attaar: "That deprivation is very broad in nature, and is based not on specific inculpation of political corruption, but on theory and suspicion not anchored in a specific legal provision."

Nothing could explain the wrongful disenfranchising of a broad sector of Egyptian society under the recently-abrogated ruling, like providing the case of one member of the now dissolved Egyptian Parliament.  It is the case of House member Alaa Makady, Number 333, of Samalloot, province of El-Minya, in upper Egypt, and one of our Regional Representatives of SUNSGLOW - Global Training in the Rule of Law.

Mr. Makady had occupied that parliamentary seat from 2005 to 2010 succeeding to a long line of the Makady family who were always voted in by the public to that seat since 1958.  The Makadys are a proud clan which played throughout modern Egyptian history a critical role in the independence of Egypt from Great Britain and in the development of economic, political, and social life in that part of the great southern Egypt, called Al-Ssaeed.  I have personally witnessed the results of their charitable contributions to the poor in their area of the Province of El-Minya, and their incessant work for interfaith harmony between Muslims and Christians/(Coptic) in southern Egypt.

The Makadys role in Muslim/Coptic harmony has no clear parallel in the Nile Delta (Northern or Lower Egypt) for one simple reason.  Al-Ssaeed works on the basis of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) which we, as law professors in America, teach in law schools.  Upper Egypt acts on Coptic-Muslim disputes, which usually implicate land boundaries rather than religion, on the basis of inter-clan conciliation.  The Nile Delta is not so deeply engaged in that quick dispute resolution mechanism which costs very little and lasts for generations.  I have personally made presentations before the Makady - created "The National Society for Human Rights" where Coptic priests sat in large numbers, next to Muslim Sheikhs, as brothers.

Alaa Makady won his family seat in 2005 not as a DNC member, but as an independent.  So how can he be prevented from exercising his civil and political rights only because he sat in a parliament, now dissolved, which was dominated by the DNC.  I asked Alaa by phone: "Are you now going to run as an independent?"  His answer was a "No" with a hearty El-Minya/Samalloot laughter of satisfaction!!

In a Slow Motion Towards a Constitution

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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In his seminal book in Arabic, The Future of Culture in Egypt, the great Egyptian philosopher, Dr. Taha Hussein wrote: "Power derives from the people.  That power does not issue from either ignorance, or distraction, or stupidity.  Nor does it issue form submissiveness, nor servitude."  (p.94)

He was blind, a graduate of Al-Azhar University (The Glorious), educated also in France, married a French woman, and became in the late 1940s Egypt's Minister of Education.  Above all, he was the father of free education including university education, as he espoused the principle that constitutionalism and democracy needed for their protection an educated public.  Taha Hussein saw clearly, though he was blinded since age 5, the indelible link between liberty and education.

Now with the resurrection of democracy in Egypt from the ashes of military rule from 1952 to 2011 (Mubarak was made to abdicate power on February 11, a mere 9 months ago today), Egypt, in a slow motion, is inching towards the drafting of a new constitution for a secular Egypt.

In spite of that slow motion, the excitement is palpable.  On November 10, I received the following email:

"Dear All:  I am very proud today that I was able to register myself to vote abroad in the upcoming elections.  The process was very easy and did not take more than 5 minutes.  Hurry up!!"

That email was sent to many persons including myself by a young physician (radiologist), Dr. Osama Raslan, a friend and the son of friends.  It was in reference to the parliamentary elections which will take place later this month in all the 27 provinces of Egypt.  In these elections, 38 political parties are competing in a broad spectrum from liberals to Islamists emerging from the suppression of military rule.  And what a rainbow of diversity!!

What is emblematic about that forward motion, from parliamentary election, to a constituent assembly, to drafting the new constitution for post-Mubarak Egypt is that the present Cabinet of Egypt includes a Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Aly Al-Salami.  His portfolio is entitled "Democratic Change and Political Development."  In his attempt to convene a conference of all the parties competing in the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Deputy Prime Minister was rebuffed by the "Freedom and Justice Party" which has spun off the Muslim Brotherhood.  Said the Secretary-General  of the FJP, Dr. Saad El-Katatni that all Islamist-oriented parties (which include 4 parties made up of Salafis -the farthest to the right of those Islamic groupings):

"This is an attempt to confuse public opinion by busying it with principles intended to freeze the upcoming drafting of the new constitution within the framework of those principles.  It is a sabotage of the popular will."

The secular parties disagreed.  They were led by the historic party Al-Wafd (akin to the Congress Party of India) which hoisted the banner of Egypt's independence from Great Britain in the Revolution of 1919.  They said that the proposed conference will have before it no less than eight documents dealing with "Constitutional Guidelines."  The sources of these documents are diverse, including one authored, for debate, by the Supreme Military Council which governs Egypt at present on an interim basis.

The essential debate is driven by the fear of sabotaging the march of the new Egypt towards democracy, dignity and development (the 3 Ds).  Thus the opposition to those constitutional guidelines can be seen from the lense of suspicion of authority engrained in the public psyche over more than half a century of army rule.  The term "guidelines" was read "trusteeship."

Egypt's road map towards constitutionalism have these road signs: from parliamentary elections this November; to a new Parliament; to the selection by the new House of Representatives (Majlis Al-Shaab: the People's House) of a hundred "personalities" forming the Constituent Assembly; to the drafting within 6 months from the date of convening the Constituent Assembly of the new post-Mubarak constitution; to a plebiscite to be held within 15 days of completion of that draft on a consensual basis for its approval; then finally to the promulgation of the new constitution.

Against this background, the voice of secular Egypt was raised by one of the new parties "Al-Messriyoun Al-Ahrar -the Free Egyptians" established by Naguib Saweeris, a prominent Copt.

A member of the Political Bureau of the AA, Dr. Muhammad Hamid declared: "There is fear from any form of control or domination by the extreme religious right over the Constituent Assembly!!"  Then in support of the preparation of guidelines for that Assembly as of now, Dr. Hamid added: "We need a constitution which provides for a secular State, for the protection of civil rights and liberties including the protection of minorities, and for principles reflecting a broad consensus."

STAY TUNED!! WATCH FOR THE ACCELERATION OF THAT SLOW MOTION

When the Headlines in Egypt's Press Tell the Whole Story

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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The press in Egypt after Mubarak had found its mouth: loud, uninhibited, and very personal.

The news of the forthcoming elections for Parliament later this month are dominating.  Why not?  There are more than 38 parties in competition and the cartoons humorously reflect that intra-Egyptian race for a piece of the pie very cogently.

In the newspaper Al-Gomhouriya (the Republic), the distinguished cartoonist Ahmad Toughan has an interesting caricature.  A candidate in these highly-contested elections comes by accident upon a poorly-dressed man, thrusts his hand forward in a forced hand shake and exclaims to the bewildered man:  "Where have you been, Man!!  I have missed you for a long time!  In fact I am running for a parliamentary seat - ONLY FOR YOU!!"

But electioneering by the parties spawned of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the more to the religious right, the Salafis (see our earlier blogs) issue an assuring election devise:  No banners carrying religious symbols.  The Muslim Brotherhood-oriented political party "Al-Horriyah Wa Al-Adaalah" (Freedom and Justice) carries in its newspaper an interview with the Secretary-General of that party, Mr. Saad Al-Katatni states:

"The Democratic Coalition For Egypt shall enter this race under the motto, We Bring Good Things to Egypt.  This indicates the great aspirations of the parties in that Coalition for serving Egypt and its public during this important juncture in Egypt's modern history."

What about the motto "Islam is the Solution"?, asked the interviewer of Mr. Al-Katatni.  His response was:

"This is the historic motto of the Muslim Brotherhood which established the party and which it uses since 1987.  But the party will not use this motto because it does not wish to impose it on its partners in that Coalition.  But the party may use it in future elections."

Not all of the headlines in the Egyptian press were devoted to those historic elections for the House of Representatives.

Some of those headlines dealt with the attendance of Field Marshal Tantawi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto President of Egypt during this eventful transition, at the naval exercises conducted by Egypt in its territorial waters.

Other headlines featured the news of the meeting held by the Prime Minister, Dr. Essam Sharaf, with the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Counsellor Hossam Al-Gheriani, and the President of the "Judicial Club," Counsellor Ahmad El-Zind to solve the problem of the Egyptian Bar.  The problem revolves around what constituted disruptive behavior of some Egyptian lawyers in the Courts.  The Egyptian Bar, located in Cairo, is a member of the Federation of the Arab Bar Associations, also located in Cairo.  The lawyers are claiming immunity from what they regard as harassment by judges presiding over court litigation  These issues are not yet resolved.

While on judicial matters in the new Egypt, the headlines also dealt with the appearance by deposed President Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Jamal, together with former Minister of the Interior, Mr. Habib Al-Adli and others, before the Criminal Court.  The trial has been instituted on the basis of charges of corruption, abuse of authority, theft of public funds, illegal ownership of land and real estate, torture and the killing of peaceful demonstrators by government security forces, during the historic uprising in Tahrir  and elsewhere in Egypt which began on January 25, 2011.

The fear from an unwanted return to military rule or domination of the politics of post-Mubarak Egypt was also palpable in these headlines.  The newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom (The Egyptian Today) had an article raising dark suspicions regarding the ultimate intentions of Egypt's Supreme Military Council.  It said in part:

"The Council is an integral part of a regime which lost only its head, but not its body." 

The article written by a woman journalist, Sahar Al-Jaarah, opined that:

"The continuity of our revolution is our biggest cause for faith in the future.  This is Revolution Until Victory.  There are no other alternatives."

A Tahrir Refrain: "Raise Your Head Up High, You are a Copt"

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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When the Egyptian masses rose up on January 25, 2011 to throw off the yoke of the Mubarak regime, they raised in Tahrir both the crescent and the cross.  That is Egypt at its best: inclusive, cosmopolitan, moderate and diverse.  As of that date, all of its population (90 million - one fourth of all Arabs) aspired to a bright tomorrow, with Egypt, both of its Muslims and Christians (Copts) charging forward, leading the region towards democracy, development, and, above all, dignity.

Then came the Maspero massacre of Wednesday, October 19 (see our earlier blogs).  Thousands of Copts clashed with security and armed forces guarding the Egyptian TV building in the area of Cairo called Maspero.  Several from both sides; more were wounded.  It was the Egyptian Revolution darkest hour.  Egyptian blood on Egyptian hands.  Some expatriate Copts even called for internationalization of "the Coptic question."  The unthinkable became almost thinkable.  It was a jolt which caused Egyptian leadership and institution to spring into action.

Consequently on October 24, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the de facto and interim Egyptian Head of State, met with Pope Shenouda, the Pope of Alexandria, and the head of the Coptic Church -one of the most learned personalities whom I know of in that part of the world.  The agenda carried an assuring message: Egyptian Copts and Egyptian Muslims are one and inseparable body politic.

At that historic meeting, there were issues to be discussed, solutions to be put in place, national harmony to be strengthened.  The purpose was to emphasize that Egypt's national interest was supreme, and that Coptic grievances which resulted in the Maspero massacre needed to be addressed.  On top of the list was, not only to investigate the events and the wrong-doers of the Maspero massacre.  But also to deal with the perennial delays in the construction and refurbishing of Coptic churches all over Egypt.  The triggering events which flared as a result of the attack on the Marynab Church in Egypt's deep south had to be addressed.

For his part, Pope Shenouda was eloquently reassuring at this meeting with Tantawi.  The spirit of amity and peace should always govern all dealings between Egypt's Muslims and Copts.  They are, as the Pope of Alexandria said, the sons and daughters of the Egyptian homeland.  Sedition was a danger that should not confront Egypt.

The following day, the Egyptian Cabinet considered a new law governing the zoning, construction and authorization of all places of worship, both churches and mosques all over Egypt.  This law was the product of committees on social justice and legislation, and of "the Family's House" (Bait Al-Aaelah) -an interdenominational institution created by the Grand Imam, Dr. Al-Tayeb, of Al-Azhar, the citadel of Islamic learning located in Cairo for more than one-thousand years.

How is this reflected within the Egyptian community in the U.S.?  In the monthly newspaper entitled Voice of Belady (My Country's Voice), its editor-in-chief, Mr. Mouhib Ghabbour (a distinguished Copt) celebrate with members of the New Jersey Egyptian community, both the end of Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting) (in August) and the feast of the Virgin Mary in one sitting. The motto of his more than 70 pages in both English and Arabic is fascinating.  It reads: "Separation Between Religion and State -No Turban Is Above the Law."  AMEN, Mr. Ghabbour!!

These expatriates have now been given a potential voice in running the new Egypt.  By a decision of the Egyptian Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo, the Government were instructed to allow Egyptians abroad to vote at their respective Consulates and Embassies.

Said Al-Azhar, through its delegation to Pope Shenouda on October 25: "The Maspero event shall be the last of Egypt's deep sorrows."

Gaddafi's Bloody End As Seen from Cairo

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The headlines in the Cairo press screamed "Gaddafi's Assassination."  It was not in glee on the part of the Egyptian printed media.  It was in reflection on the end of the life of the Libyan dictator of 42 years who once waged war on Egypt only to be hit back by Egypt's airforce as ordered by Sadat.

Then there was this quiet satisfaction in the Egyptian street as it compared between how Gaddafi was pummelled  then shot to death, and how Mubarak was being wheeled on his sick bed into open court in Cairo with his doctors and lawyers in tow.

Within this spectrum of emotions and soul searching, there was no mistaking Egypt's sigh of relief that Gaddafi's end meant a new beginning in neighboring Libya.  There was no dancing in Egypt's streets, yet there was quiet humming of glee for the Libyan masses erupting in song and dance.

The editorials celebrated what promises to be a new beginning in Tripoli.  The theme in the main editorial in the Egyptian Government newspaper Al-Ahram (established in Cairo by the Takla Christian Lebanese brothers 136 years ago), in its issue number 45609 summed up Egypt's mood. 

"Yesterday, the curtain fell on the Gaddafi era, in order for a new age to begin.  This beginning is not for Libya only, but for the entire Arab region, and perhaps for the world.  It was an era marked by dictatorship, oppression, suppression of the freedoms and rights of the citizen, and murder.  The Gaddafi period was characterized by disrespect for the people's destiny, by frittering away national wealth in order to feed personal ambitions and external whims.  In this, the Libyans, the legitimate owners of that wealth, were permitted no say, no opinion, not even a whisper.

More than any other leader in this area , Gaddafi personified this dark period in Arab history.  Since his assumption of power in 1969, he pushed his behavioral antics to grotesque limits... Those antics included his strange theories which he posted in his book "The Green Book" in which he developed a philosophy of governance all his own.  Through that philosophy, he made the Libyan people his field of experimentation from populism (jamahiriya), to socialism (ishtirakia), to rule by "popular committees."

Gaddafi swung wildly from the concept of Arab unity, to divorcing that concept in preference for African unity.  Throughout his reign, he tried to impose his views on his people and their neighbors.  This he did through money, weapons, terror and intervention in their internal affairs.  This led him to wars with Chad, Sudan, Egypt and Tunisia.

His mischief had an overreach beyond North Africa.  He got involved in conflicts in Northern Ireland and in Latin America.  Then abruptly, in later years, he tried reconciliation (after Lockerbie) with the West, by giving up his nuclear material and allowing western companies to pursue investments in Libya.

But the Arab Spring, armed and determined, flared up, ending his reign -a reign which was based on family and tribe, through he clothed it, once in nationalism, then in socialism.

No doubt, the post-Gaddafi world will be both different and better.  It is our fervent hope that, in its new era, Libya shall open a new page based on democracy, respect for human rights, and responsiveness to the Libyan people's aspirations.

During the long Gaddafi period, these were all values which were nowhere to be found."

Egyptian Blood on Egytpian Hands: The Maspero Massacre

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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The email came to me, fast and furious.  It was from a young Coptic lawyer, one of my collaborators.  It was dated October 11 on a horrific disaster which befell all of Egypt on Sunday, October 9, at Maspero.  That is where the Egyptian Television is located, facing both the great Nile and also thousands of mainly Coptic demonstrators.

On that eventful day, perhaps the most eventful since Dictator Mubarak was chased out of office, 26 demonstrators were killed, 329 injured.  The cause of the Maspero uprising: an attack in upper Egypt on an Egyptian Coptic church in the most southern of Egyptian provinces, Aswan Province.  It was the spark that ignited the Copts who marched from their area of mostly Coptic concentrations in Cairo, called Shubra, on the symbol of Egypt's newly found freedom of expression, the state-run Egyptian Television at Maspero.

In his email of October 11, my Coptic lawyer friend said: "Egypt is crying blood and all the reason for that is the selfishness of some political parties and internal/external groups that want to see Egypt in this catastrophe.  I am really wondering why this is occurring for our dear country which really does not deserve all of that.  I also bring this tragedy to the lack of rule of law (for) which we all should work to strengthen (it.)"

Reflection of this extreme anxiety about the future of the Revolution of January 25 was through a cartoon in a government-controlled newspaper called "Rose Al-Youssef" which made the rounds throughout the Arab world.  The gifted cartoonist by the name of Anwar, had 2 persons wading into a pool of blood: one representing the military, the other, the civilian Prime Minister, Dr. Essam Sharaf.  On top of these two figures, the ominous words read: "Do you think we should open an investigation in where this blood came from, or is that not necessary?"

That bloody confrontation was between Coptic demonstrators on one side and security forces bolstered by military police on the other.  Muslims seem to have been split into two factions:  one group sided with the Copts, the other with the forces of the Government.  The first group was rewarding the Copts for their principled stand for national unity during the anti-Mubarak uprising; the second was rewarding the army for keeping its powder dry when Tahrir was aflame in quest of Mubarak's removal form power.

Who is to blame?  All parties.  Who are the winners?  Nobody.  Who are the losers: EGYPT.  In an email, my dearest niece told me from Cairo: "My heart is breaking for Egypt."

What are the consequences?  The honeymoon between the army and its people seems to have evaporated -at least for now.  There is suspicion that the military is angling for overstaying their welcome by extending the period of military rule, with a facade of a supine civilian government.

Yet actions by the Government were swift as were mutual recriminations.  Partial night curfew was declared for central Cairo; the Supreme Council of Armed Forces instructed the Government to conduct a thorough investigation and to bring to justice all those who were the cause of that mayhem; the Prime Minister called for national unity; the Copts called for the internationalization of sectarian strife, accusing the army of complicity.

In such complicated event, the conspiracy theory takes a front seat in the drama of the new Egypt taking its first baby steps towards democracy.  PM Sharaf declared: "There are criminal internal and external fingers which played their part in the violence in central Cairo to impede the establishment of a democratic system in Egypt."  Then he went on to tell the nation on TV: "The worst dangers confronting Egyptian security are the attempts to disrupt national unity; to sow disunity (between Muslims and Copts); to drive a wedge between the people and their army... It is difficult to characterize what happened as a sectarian conflict."

PM Sharaf seemed to have a boost for his theory from Pope Shenoudah, the head of the Coptic Church.  His Eminence, through the Holy Clerical Council which included 170 bishops, declared: "Christian faith rejects violence.  Outsiders penetrated Coptic demonstrators to commit those atrocities and then point the finger of blame at the Coptic community."

As for Al-Azhar (the Glorious) (Seat of Islamic learning for more than 1000 years), it declared through its Grand Imam, Sheikh Dr. Ahmed El-Tayeb:  "The Egyptian military was and shall always be the expression and manifestation of the principle of Egyptian citizenship."

The root cause of Coptic unrest was also tackled:  The Council of Ministers is slated to approve within two weeks a new law for standardizing the zoning rules of the construction of both mosques and churches.

If it does, then the flames at Maspero, which were ignited from a small church in Aswan Province, might have been converted into light guiding Egypt in the near future towards civilian and democratic rule.