It seems once again that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt continues to cling to its understanding and its plans for dealing with the crisis in the country. Indeed, all of its leaders, with the start of the first round of the referendum, have stressed the religious duty of voting yes for the draft constitution, even if they have also spoken of accepting the result of the referendum whatever it may be. In fact, none of the members of the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies seems to harbor any doubt regarding the positive result of the referendum, considering themselves to be receiving a “pledge of allegiance" for the second time from the Egyptian people, after they had considered President Mohamed Morsi's victory to have represented a first “pledge". There is a big difference between a constitution being adopted by referendum and the Brotherhood considering itself to have obtained “allegiance". Indeed, the latter notion, which is connected to concepts of power and rule completely different from what Egypt is witnessing today, seeks for the Brotherhood to give itself the image of one who speaks for the entire nation, thus becoming an issue specific to the Islamists and giving them the absolute right to act on behalf of everyone. A referendum, on the other hand, represents an opinion to be given on a constitutional issue that concerns all Egyptians, not a political endorsement of the Brotherhood. Egypt has, ever since Morsi unveiled his constitutional declaration, witnessed a broad movement of opposition, demonstrations and protests, objecting to the manner in which the President has granted himself powers that are not subject to accountability, especially as these powers were used in order to pass the “Brotherhoodist" constitution. In other words, the opposition had in the first place moved to prevent the Brotherhood's plans from becoming plans for the state in Egypt. Furthermore, fears of such an eventuality have grown as a result of groups of Brotherhood supporters confronting the opposition in the street, in a manner that makes the country's constitution correspond to the Brotherhood's policy. And what reinforced maintaining these “Brotherhoodish" views is the fact that the Presidency paid no heed to the entire opposition movement or to its content, instead clinging to holding the referendum as scheduled, on the basis of calculations that guaranteed its result, and regardless of the points of view held by other political parties and groups. This represents monopolizing the drafting of the constitution, which was supposed to be unanimously approved by all forces, as well as serves the Brotherhood's view of the nature of sought-after rule. Some in the opposition have objected to the procedure used by Morsi to reach the referendum, while others have objected to specific articles of the constitution. Yet the core of the problem remains that popular suffrage, for the Brotherhood and its leaders, is only a “pledge of allegiance", and departing from it is tantamount to betraying the nation and working for foreign powers, or to blasphemy and apostasy, as the Imams of Brotherhood-affiliated mosques preached to all those gathered in prayer the day before the referendum. The problem does not reside in a particular article of the constitution being inconsistent with human rights and the rights of citizens, or another seeking to limit the powers of the judiciary, etc... from among the remarks put forward with regard to certain articles of the constitution. Indeed, articles of the constitution can be amended under the appropriate political and legal circumstances. Rather, the problem today in Egypt, whether or not the draft constitution is ratified by referendum, resides in the “Brotherhoodish" understanding of the nature and the function of government, which makes very difficult, if not completely excludes, any future alternation of power that would allow correcting what the Brotherhood's constitution includes in terms of loopholes that threaten equality between citizens, democracy, pluralism and the respect of rights. And it is in this sense that Morsi, and behind him the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, is asking for a “pledge of allegiance" through this referendum.
