Things continue to look bleaker and bleaker for Egypt’s Christians.

Via Ahram Online:

The Salafist Nour Party has expressed its overall contentment with the draft constitution, curtailing speculations concerning the party’s position.

“The Nour Party has approved 70 per cent of the draft constitution,” affirmed spokesman Nadar Bakkar to Ahram Online, emphasising his party’s general conviction with regards to the draft.

Concerning the draft’s adherence to sharia (Islamic law), the principal point of concern for the Nour Party and Salafist ideologues, the spokesman confirmed that the final draft does in fact follow the sharia.

“Article 221 in the draft constitution dictates the application of sharia,” he said.

The Nour Party’s evident satisfaction with Article 221 lies in its conservative definition of sharia, which strictly adheres to the Sunni interpretation of Islamic law.

Article 221 of the proposed constitutional draft states that the term “principles of Islamic sharia,” mentioned in Article 2 of the constitution as the main source of legislation essentially means the sources of Islamic jurisprudence used by Sunni Islam and its four main schools.

Previously, the Constitutional Court had interpreted the term “principles” to mean the religious rules that were clearly established by religious texts, and are of absolutely certain proof and meaning. In practice this referred to only a handful of rules, as opposed to the newly proposed article which allows for a wider application of Islamic jurisprudence.