Calls for changing Article II and deleting the phrase “principles of the sharī’ah” or replacing it with the phrase “rulings of the sharī’ah” triggered political frenzy amidst warnings of possible strife in the Egyptian society if this changes takes place.

Najīb Jabrā’īl, Chairman of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization, called on representatives of the three churches to immediately withdraw from the constitution panel if there was insistence to place the phrase “principles of Islamic sharī’ah” that had been approved in the Azhar Document with only the word “sharī’ah”. [Muhammad Hijāb, ‘Abīr al-Mursī and Hāzim Abū Dūmah, al-Misrī al-Yawm, July 3, p. 6] Read original text in Arabic