Yasser El-Burhamy, Alexandria’s main Salafist preacher, has said that he considers the calls by some activists in favour of enforcing supra-constitutional principles to govern the work of the foundational committee of the new constitution, as an act of defying God’s rule.

During a conference held today by the Salafist political party El-Nour, El-Burhamy said that, “the constitution’s principles are derived from sharia (Islamic law)”, hence enforcing any supra-constitutional regulations means “overruling God’s divine law”. Furthermore, Burhamy has referred to “radical secularists and liberals” as “advocates of nudity and of following desires”, calling them a dictator minority that aims to impose its views on the mass of the Egyptian people. El-Burhamy added that, “only God is above us and there is no such thing as supra-constitutional principles”.

El-Burhamy also stated at the conference that Salafists only entered the political arena “to protect Article 2 of the constitution from secularists and liberals”, whom he says “only believe in freedom of nudity and yielding to desires”.

Sheikh Nader Bakar, one of the spokespersons of the party, condemned those who are currently protesting all over Egypt, arguing that they have taken the blood of the martyrs as a pretext to create chaos and hinder production. Bakar has argued that the protests in Saad Zaghloul Square and El-Qaed Ibrahim area in Alexandria have no justification.

In a response, a member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution disapproved of the statements made by the Salafist party leaders, describing them as hostile, and adding that they "perpetuate a spirit of division between the Egyptian people."