Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils Mufid Shehab on Saturday 24/2/2007hailed as wise a stance by Pope Shenouda III of on article "2" of the Egyptian constitution.

Pope Shenouda had strongly advised against polemics while discussing constitutional amendments.

Shehab indicated that, for long years dating back to the 19th century, the application of Islamic Sharia did not harm national unity in Egypt.

The remarks by Shehab came in response to a debate by participants in an annual conference of the international centre for strategic and future studies that opened on Saturday24/2/2007 on the democratic shift in Egypt.

All applications in Egypt do not run contrary to the principle of citizenship, said Shehab, adding that no legislation would discriminate between a Muslim an Copt in Egypt.

Meanwhile, Dr Ismail el-Deftar, the former Al-Azhar undersecretary, said that Islam regulates relations between Muslims and non-Muslims (in Islamic communities).

He explained that citizenship rights were premised on Islamic tenets.