Bishop Paul, representative of the Orthodox Church in the 50-member Constituent Assembly, has rejected articles dealing with Egypt's national identity – as mentioned in the first section of the constitution.
“The Al-Azhar and the Salafis imposed those articles on us,” he claimed. “Nobody consulted us [about them].”
“We also reject the interpretation of Article 219,” he added.
Committee spokesperson Mohamed Salmawy argued that Bishop Paul agreed to the interpretation. “He stepped back from replacing the term 'non-Muslims' with 'Christians and Jews' in Article 3,” he added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
