The Building and Development Party (BDP) will march on Tuesday to the office of Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, demanding that he resigns. They do so under the guise of the “Revolution to Work on Judicial Independence,” a coalition that the party said it is a founder of.
On their website the BDP, which is the political iteration of the Gama’a Islamia, state that their goal is to apply “popular pressure” on the prosecutor general.
It may be a response to the failure of President Mohammed Morsy’s legislative and executive pressure, which failed to oust Mahmoud.
After Morsy told the Mubarak-era and much-derided Mahmoud to step down, he simply said he would not.
This was the spark for a 12 October rally by the Muslim Brotherhood that sought to support the removal of Mahmoud. That rally descended into violence when it ran head on with a separate march critical of the new draft constitution, which the Muslim Brotherhood back.
Gama’a Islamia’s Facebook page is also calling for a march against the draft constitution. However, while the 12 October rally was made up largely of progressives who felt the draft is too tied to religion, Gama’a Islamia is demanding more religion in the constitution.
They are calling for coordination among organisations to ensure that Shari’a is at the heart of the constitution. The group does not see themselves as implementing this so much as realising what they call the desires of the majority of Egyptians.
They call for a joining of forces that will pick a time and a place for a million man march, which will “rid Egypt from the French legal colonisation.”
Former MP for the BDP, Amer Abdel Rahim, said on Monday that Shari’a in the constitution would be best for all Egyptians. “It is a way of life,” said Rahim. “It works for everyone because God gave it as a way of life and God knows what is best for his people.”
