READER COMMENTS

If he is true and honest, he will win.

Mohamed Ragab Asqalani will be Egypt’s next president. In light of the circumstances that the country and the Arab world are going through, I prayed Almighty Allah and decided to run for president given that I am eligible to become president. Among the conditions, the next president must be a young person who knows where to go and to whom to increase investments and work on developing the cooperation between the Arab world and African countries. Cooperation was almost absent during the last thirty years. We have to establish projects for young people, we have to work seriously to find solutions for those who cannot afford to pay for their medical treatment. We have to provide pensions for the elderly who do not have a breadwinner. Now, Egypt wants to impose the law not through iron and fire but through the supremacy of the law. We must have a president who knows how to apply the law, who is neutral among the different sects of the Egyptian people, be they Muslims or Christians. He must enact laws for places of worship and to take revenge on the former regime, those who have been investigated and others. He has to enact a tax law based on right and equality through taking more from the wealthy people in a just way like in Islam. He must spread love as mentioned by the noble Prophet (Peace be upon him). Now, Egypt wants to apply Islam in every sense of the word and not through endorsing extremism as some people did. It must be based on the Prophet’s Sunnah. He used to deal with the Muslims and Christians fairly. I do not belong to any party or group. I am juts an Egyptian Muslim and I want nothing but success from God and His support. Then I want nothing but good for our Egypt, which once was the beacon of the whole world. We have to regain the dignity of Egypt and Egyptians not only in the Arab and African worlds but all over the world. We must work son solving Arab and Islamic people’s problems and first Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a part of Egypt. However, I cannot promise this at the beginning of my term but after achieving prosperity for Egypt so that I will be able to free Jerusalem, then Iraq, Lebanon and the whole Arab nation.

I would like to criticize the ongoing farce in Egypt because of the presidential elections, because of the insistence of some people to make sure it goes according to their whims. They want to violate the rights of the people of Egypt and the rights of the martyrs, who sacrificed their souls in order to make Egypt reach this historic day. Some people work on stealing the revolution of the Egyptian youth and destroying their dreams. Egypt and its people aspire to a disciplined democratic practice rather than defaming the candidates in this way and making public statements against each other on TV. Some of them accused others of disloyalty and dual citizenship. I see that this is defective in this historic event, which is about to happen in Egypt. In addition, control of the parliament by the Islamists‎ led to making many candidates revoke their decision to run in the election. The conditions are very difficult and they were tailored to serve the Islamic currents. I criticize these procedures and the whole electoral process, which was based on injustice and attempts to destroy the political candidates from the first moment. How will Egypt be ruled afterwards while the beginning of the democratic way started in this way? What will be the destination of democracy in Egypt? How will the presidential elections will be run under these very negative circumstances and the way of managing the preparations and legislation that favor some parties at the expense of the others?

There is an ongoing dispute in Egypt about the Constituent Assembly of the Constitution. The crisis was exacerbated after the election of the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council of the Constituent Assembly where Islamists represent the majority of its members. In fact, the largest proportions of the Members of Parliament who are representatives of the Committee belong to the Islamic Movement. The Council also includes a large number of civil society figures who make up the other half of the Committee. Thus, the Islamists represent over half of the members. This makes the coming Constitution an Islamist one. The other political forces had to withdraw, including Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and the Supreme Constitutional Court. It is better to opt for a Constitution which states that Egypt is an Islamic, national, democratic, constitutional State. It should be a modern State based on citizenship, the rule of law. It must ensure the freedom of thought and belief, and criminalize discrimination between the Egyptians on the basis of religion, race and sex. It should also ensure the freedom of religious practices and support national unity.