The Society for Threatened Peoples warns that Islamists are trying to exclude the Copts in the new constitution

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns that Coptic people are about to be excluded from the Egyptian society. "We are deeply concerned that the Islamist Al-Nour is trying to include the principles of the Sharia law in the new Egyptian constitution," said the STP's Africa-consultant, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Monday. "We are also alarmed because the Islamists are trying to delete any references regarding a ‘civil state’ from the preamble of the constitution." After the representatives of the Coptic, Catholic and Anglican churches had announced to leave the constitutional committee in Egypt due to these changes, a subcommittee was formed on Sunday in order to re-formulate the controversial articles.

The constitutional conference, which consists of 50 experts, will revise the constitution that had been drafted in 2012 during the presidency of Mohamed Mursi and suspended after his fall in July 2013. Back then, representatives of the Christian churches had also left the constitutional committee when it became obvious that the Islamists were trying to restrict the rights of religious minorities and further the Islamization of Egypt. According to plans by the constitutional conference, around 189 of the 234 articles of the constitution are to be changed now.

Within the constitutional conference and among the members of the religious minorities there is also a dispute about a possible quota for Coptic MPs. Some of the Coptic MPs demand that the new electoral law should contain a passage to ensure that each of the 27 administrative districts of the country has at least one Coptic Christian to represent the minority in parliament. However, the Coptic Church and many non-governmental organizations oppose to a fixed quota. They demand full citizenship rights for members of the religious minority and fear that a quota might lead to a further exclusion of the Copts from society and to a new outbreak of violence.

The Christian Copts make up about ten percent of the 84 million inhabitants of the country.