CAIRO // Never before have so many Islamic states simultaneously undertaken the task of rewriting their constitutions.
More than a year after the self-immolation of a street trader in Tunisia ignited massive protests against leaders across the region, interim authorities in Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli are keen to enshrine new political and legal arrangements in law and lay the groundwork for institutions that are more representative.
The repercussions of these efforts to draft new blueprints for personal rights and for the role of religion in politics are expected to resound across the wider Islamic world for years.
Given the stakes, one of Egypt's top judges worries that constitutional reform is happening far too hastily.
"There is a focus on timelines and not on canvassing the people about what they really want," says Adel Omar Sherif, one of Egypt's 19 Supreme Constitutional Court justices. "Writing a constitution must be an inclusive process … I haven't seen any of this."
His comments come just weeks before the recently elected upper and lower houses of parliament are expected to convene to choose a 100-member committee to write a new constitution.
In a road map laid out by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), the generals ruling the country, the committee will begin drafting the new constitution alongside presidential elections due by the end of June.
Within six months, the proposed constitution must be voted on in a referendum.
In just a few months, the committee will have to enact into law what the people demanded by the hundreds of thousands in the streets of Egypt last year.
In Tunisia, which last October elected a delegation to rewrite the constitution, the formation of a new government has held up the process.
Libyans are the farthest behind, having liberated the country from Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and his forces only last August. But even they are due to elect a national assembly in June, which will choose a committee to draft a new constitution within 60 days.
"Transitional periods are always complicated," said David Williams, a constitutional law professor at Indiana University who recently returned from a trip to advise the ruling National Transitional Council in Libya.
"But what makes it worse in this region is that people are not used to exercising political authority and they are having to learn a lot very, very quickly. What we are seeing are the first political struggles."
In nowhere more than Egypt is this true.
The country is witnessing a battle over the future between Islamist political parties, which dominated parliamentary elections, groups pushing for a secular government, the military and remnants of the regime of Hosni Mubarak.
The road map laid out by the Scaf has given it a greater ability to influence the constitution, said Tamir Moustafa, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who is researching Egypt's transition.
"Power will not be transferred to civilian authorities until after the constitution is complete, placing the military in a much stronger position to exert formal and informal pressure on the shape of the new constitution," he said.
Last year, the Scaf attempted to shield itself from parliamentary oversight, retain control over its vast economic interests and play a powerful role in policy-making in a proposed set of "Supra-Constitutional Principles". The document was retracted in the face of widespread opposition from political parties and demonstrations on the streets of Cairo. But the generals may yet retain their powerful role by striking deals with parties set to choose the members of the constitutional committee, analysts say.
A core issue in each of the countries is what powers are to be given to the executive branch of government.
Mubarak in Egypt, Qaddafi in Libya and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia ruled with almost complete authority - often brutally repressing the opposition - so there are few groups pushing for a strong executive branch.
But exactly how to distribute powers is emerging as a complex debate in all three countries.
For all the representative strength of strong parliaments, they can also slow down reforms in countries whose economies are in desperate need of a boost, critics say.
And after Islamist political successes in elections, some liberal and secular political groups fear giving parliamentarians too much power and religion too much influence in the state and foreign policy.
In Egypt, whether the uprising can achieve a revolution in governance is uncertain unless a constitutional process includes all parts of the country, said Mr Sherif, the Supreme Constitutional Court judge.
"We need a constitutional debate from north to south, from east to west, and we don't have one," he said. "Every word in a constitution has impacts on government and society. We are in danger of rushing it."
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