Part 2 What Basis for Statehood: Religion or Citizenship?, 2.5 Contesting Islamic Constitutionalism after the Arab Spring: Islam in Egypt’s Post-Mubārak Constitutions

Since 1971, Egypt’s constitutions have contained provisions defining the role of Islam in the constitutional order. After the fall of President Ḥusnī Mubārak, the nature of these provisions underwent changes in response to extremely contentious national debates. Egypt’s 1971 Constitution defined the role of Islam in fairly minimal terms. As initially drafted, Article 2 of that constitution explained nebulously that that “the principles of the Islamic Sharīʿah are a chief source of legislation” without defining what “the principles of the Islamic Sharīʿah” are or...