Yasser Borhamy, an influential cleric and the vice president of the Salafi Dawah, has said the new constitution must stipulate that a sentence privileging respecting God's law, or Sharia, be added to any oath.
Borhamy was responding to a question asked on the famous Salafi website “Ana al-Salafi” about oaths. The question was “How can a Muslim take an oath of respecting laws that do not criminalize adultery, homosexuality and intercourse with animals, unless they are committed in public?”
He said that the oath performed by the president, ministers, MPs and other senior officials should have the sentence, “as long as there are no contradictions with God's law."
He said a person swearing in using an oath without that sentence would be committing a sin.
Borhamy added, “I pray to God to guide those who do not adhere to the exclusion.”
According to the 1971 constitution and the 2011 Constitutional Declaration, the president should take the following oath “I swear to God that I will faithfully preserve the republican order, that I will respect the constitution and the law, and look after the interests of the people comprehensively, and that I will preserve the independence of the nation and the safety of its land.”
MPs swear in with a slightly different oath: “I swear to God that I will faithfully preserve the safety of the nation and the republican order, that I will look after the interests of the people and respect the constitution and the law.”
The issue of having an oath with the sentence “as long as there are no contradictions with God's law" surfaced last January in the opening session of the People’s Assembly, when former Salafi MP Mamdouh Ismail and others insisted on qualifying their oath with, "if not in contradiction with Islamic Sharia," instead of just saying "I swear I respect the law, the constitution and the republican system."
