President Morsi may have emerged victorious after negotiating a truce between Hamas and the Israeli government following the assault in Gaza, but the tone at home is not one of celebratory ululations. A few days earlier, a peaceful protest began in downtown Cairo in memory of the young people who fell victim to the military and Ministry of Interior assault a year earlier during the uprising, known as the Mohamed Mahmoud events. This time around, over one hundred young people have been injured in the same place where their friends and family fell victim last year.
Meanwhile, the constituent assembly tasked with drawing up Egypt’s new constitution stood on shaky ground – more so than ever before. The Coptic Christian churches representing the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority had withdrawn from the constituent assembly in protest against the highly exclusionary process of drawing up the constitution and its many discriminatory articles. Soon to follow suit were the journalists’ syndicate, representatives from the judiciary and key political figures. Many opposition figures warned that the 67% Islamist bloc in the constituent assembly was likely to rule by majoritarian fiat, not consensual politics.
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