At its roots are Morsi's authoritarian and increasingly Islamist rule, economic grievances and a plethora(过多) of other failures.

 

But the nation is also fundamentally entrenched(根深蒂固的) in an ideological clash.

 

Egyptians are religious. I mean, we've been religious for 7,000 years. So that's not in question here, what's in question is how much of a role religion should play when it comes to the state, OK, that is the fundamental identity question here.

 

Ali Shalakani is a lawyer and founding member of an NGO that focuses on constitutional reforms.

 

What happened in 2012 is that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists were pushing for more robust, let's say a wider interpretation of what principles of Shariah meant.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis did get what they wanted, mainly in the form of two articles that gave Islam and Islamic institutions more prominence when it comes to governance. They were able to do that because the secularists and many others withdrew from the constitutional assembly, accusing Morsi and the Islamists of manipulating and hijacking the process.

 

When put to a national referendum, it passed. But just over 30 percent of the country actually turned out to vote. Amending that constitution is among the first steps of the interim government's roadmap.

 

Shalakani and others want to strike out those articles, but that's a nonstarter for the hardline Salafist Nour party, uncomfortable bedfellows backing the coalition. The Nour Party stood against Morsi, but only after guarantees those articles would not be touched.

 

So again, the whole of the members who joined the roadmap, or the gentlemen who were there at the meeting, agreed on this philosophy of this principle.

 

It's a vital nonnegotiable point when it comes to convincing their grassroots supporters that Morsi's ouster was a political battle, not one against Islam.

 

If they wanted to have some amendments regarding the Islamic identity, I think by that time we can think again, or reconsider again, our joining to the roadmap as a whole.

 

And so even as Egypt struggles to move forward, another fault line has already threatened to emerge.