I'm agnostic. The thing that probably angered me most about the previous constitution is that it only accepted Abrahamic religions in the country. So if I didn't have Muslim or Christian or Jewish written on my birth certificate or national ID care I wouldn't be classed as an Egyptian and wouldn't have the constitutional rights afforded to others. I have nothing against any religion, however, what I have issue with is turning religions into ideological movements which eventually destroy the image of said religion.
Egypt has long been a predominantly secular society but the MB and its affiliates were always present. The mistake of previous regimes was to deal with the MB using its security apparatus only and not dealing with the core issue of why young devout men were being radicalized. So the MB was practically divided from the rest of society for decades, for example they would only ever do business with each other and marry amongst themselves, even praying in their own mosques. They remind me of the free Masons under the watchful eye of the Church (the idea of what the free masons are has been misunderstood for decades).
After Mubarak was toppled the MB tried to reintegrate into Egyptian society but at the same time tried to change that fabric which unified the country. Egyptians much like Americans regard themselves as Egyptians first and Muslims second (not that it makes them less religious than any other Muslim), the MB tried to change that and failed. They also tried to change a tolerant and moderate society to one which gets involved in sectarian issues and conflicts when Egyptians have never involved themselves in such issues.
The problems we have now stem from social problems which will be far more challenging to solve than the political ones.
When you people talk about social classes and wealth distribution in Egypt they often forget or ignore that nearly half of Egypt lives underneath or around the poverty line. In the 25th of Jan revolution the protests were contained to primarily Cairo, Alexandria and Suez and the villages and other cities didn't see much protesting action. The ones leading the protests against Mubarak were the informed youth or disillusioned youth and Egypt's tiny middle class. Egypt's poorest didn't participate.
Now on the 30th of June we saw much larger protests which were held in every major city and governate capitols, the Egyptian villages however didn't participate. Morsi managed to alienate pretty much everyone who sympathized with the brotherhood and many who voted for him (Maybe I forgot to say this but I was actually convincing people to vote for him), however, those in Egyptian villages were uninterested in politics. Last Friday was a completely different case though, as unrest and killings in the Sinai and Cairo increased and the state media continued its propaganda campaign the Egyptian villages came to the defence of the nation because they felt the state and their lives were at risk from the brotherhood and many of these poor Egyptian families who had been conscripted and lost family members in wars and recently in the Sinai (the poorest conscripts are usually stationed with the internal security forces in the Sinai as they get sub-par education) flocked to the streets.
I'm from Minya Alkamh Alsharqiya a little village/town north of Cairo and the family back there reported to me that it was the biggest protest they have ever seen in that village since ever (maybe since Sadat tried cutting subsidies
).
The media has this tunnel vision which is primarily focused on Cairo. Its focus is so great that they sometimes don't report murders and other important stories regarding protests and divisions from the rest of the country (the global media that is).
