Apparently, a lawyer somewhere in Egypt filed a complaint with a prosecutor accusing the Egyptian political satirist, Bassem Youssef, with “insulting the President.” I had previously used the fact that Bassem Youssef’s show is even on the air as evidence that Egypt today cannot reasonably be considered a dictatorship, or at a minimum, that it is substantially more free, at least with respect to political expression, than it was in the Mubarak-era.  My friend then used this as a “classic gotcha moment”  This was what I said to my dear friend (meant seriously) in reply:

On December 8, 2012, the Ottawa Chapter of the Egyptian Dostour (Constitution) Party organized a roundtable at Carleton University.  Paul Sedra, May Telmessany, and I were the featured speakers, followed by a robust discussion with the public.  Links to the event are below:

part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTZ2Ip67io
part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jOO_-7rtQ8&feature=youtu.be
part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewYQXqjoMS8
part 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28JcnDsfAHg
part 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvxt1i3vR-k
part 6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbPmFtjoWw

Many thanks to the event’s organizers, Ahmed Doha, Mina Riad and Reem el Sharif, for the excellent work they did in putting this event together.

 This is the third and last installment of my detailed responses to Khaled Fahmy’s “32 Reasons to Vote No” on the Draft Constitution.  Here is Part I and here is Part II.  Here is a link to my general observation on his objections to the constitution.

This is the second in my series of postings in response to Professor Khaled Fahmy’s “32 Reasons to Vote No” on the draft constitution.

A few days ago, I posted some general observations about Professor Khaled Fahmy’s “32 Reasons to Vote No” to the draft constitution.  In what follows, I will give detailed reactions to his first seven points. I hope to get to the remaining points over the next few days, if the country has not gone to hell by that time.

My friend and colleague at the American University in Cairo has published on his Facebook page a note in which he provides 32 reasons to vote no for the current constitution.  I have a few general comments to Khaled’s excellent discussion below: