ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Supporters of President Mohammed Morsi and his opponents hurled rocks at each other in Egypt's second city on the eve of a final vote on a new constitution shaped by Islamists.

Police fired tear gas as scores of opponents of the constitution and thousands of Islamists hurled rocks across a security cordon separating them near a mosque in Alexandria that was the focus for violence last week.

"God is great," Islamists chanted when the clash began.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health said at least 55 people were injured in the clashes near the al-Qaid Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria, state media reported.

The Islamists had gathered in support of an Islamic vision of Egypt's future a day before a second round of voting in a referendum on the basic law. Opposition supporters had also turned out as worshipers assembled for Friday prayers.

Morsi and his Islamist allies back the draft constitution as a vital step in Egypt's transition to democracy almost two years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

The opposition says the draft, drawn up by an Islamist-dominated assembly, is a recipe for deepening divisions and more violence.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for the mass gathering in Alexandria to protest after a violent confrontation between Islamists and the liberal, secular opposition last week ended with a Muslim preacher besieged inside his mosque for 14 hours.

Rival factions had used clubs, knives and swords last week, but this time police kept the feuding sides apart, although witnesses saw several protesters and one police officer being helped away. Some protesters had head wounds.

The run-up to the final round of voting Saturday on a new constitution has been marked by often violent protests that have cost at least eight lives. The first round on Dec. 15 produced a yes vote that is expected to be repeated in the second round.

Lines of riot police cordoned off Alexandria's al-Qaid Ibrahim mosque, scene of last week's violence. Islamists chanted pro-Islamic slogans while a smaller group of opponents gathered nearby, chanting against Morsi, propelled to power in a June election by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Analysis: Egypt is rapidly approaching its own 'cliff'

"The people want the implementation of Shariah," the Islamist sympathizers shouted, in a show of support for Islamic law. "Our souls and blood, we sacrifice to Islam," they shouted.

In one incident, an Islamist filming anti-Morsi protesters was grabbed and roughed up. Islamists on the other side of a security cordon pushed and shoved police trying to reach him.

The opposition, facing defeat in the referendum, has called for a no vote against a document it says is too Islamist and ignores the rights of women and minorities, including the 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian.

AP

Opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clash with Islamist supporters of the president,as a cordon of riot police separates the groups in Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Petr David Josek / AP

Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in front of the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday.

News analysis

CAIRO — With less than a week to go until a historic referendum is held on a draft constitution that has polarized Egypt, a looming constitutional cliff threatens to plunge the country into further political uncertainty, economic turmoil and violent instability.

First, a recap of the events of the past few weeks: On Nov. 22, President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree that gave him temporary but absolute powers. That decree also shielded the largely Islamist 100-member assembly writing the constitution from the threat of being dissolved by a judicial court order.

The assembly then drafted a constitution that has been widely criticized and divided the country into two main ideological camps.

One one side is Morsi, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and the ultra-conservative Salafists and their supporters. They have supported the president in rallies and essentially laid siege to independent private news channels they accuse of bias against the president and his political agenda.

On the other side is a group of liberal, secular, socialist, youth and a few moderate opposition parties that have coalesced around what they call the National Salvation Front, led by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and several other smaller but notable Egyptian figures and movements. They too have protested, rigorously laying siege to the presidential palace. 

They claim that the draft constitution, a wide-ranging document that includes articles on trade, education and politics, was drafted by a insular group not reflective of a broad consensus of Egypt's diverse political viewpoints. They argue that it will pave the way for an Islamist takeover of the state that tramples on the rights of individuals, minorities and women.

Egypt opposition rejects Morsi plan for constitutional referendum, calls for more protests

Both camps claim to represent the interests of the revolution. But the unity of that revolution has now given way to fractured politics, which observers say threatens to derail Egypt's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy.

Fair vote possible?
Now that Morsi's controversial decree has been rescinded, the matter boils down to whether the referendum will be held on time and whether the constitution will be approved. The president and his supporters have insisted the referendum go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 15. They are rallying behind the mantra that this constitution strikes the right balance between preserving and advancing Egypt's Islamic identity while protecting the rights of others.

Asmaa Waguih / Reuters

Pro-Morsi supporters hold banners reading "I support the President's decisions," during a march in Cairo on Sunday.

The opposition is rejecting the referendum and the process that led to the vote. They are not calling for a boycott but insist the vote should not be held, and that a new, more inclusive constitutional assembly convened in the near future. They have not explained what they plan on doing on the day of the vote, should it still be held on time. 

Politics aside, there are serious questions as to whether or not the state can successfully carry out a free and fair referendum, purely from a logistical point of view. Who will supervise the vote and the counting? Egypt's electoral commission does not yet enjoy the credibility of public confidence after years of mismanaged and engineered elections.

Secondly, Egyptian judges, various judicial unions and clubs are divided over whether or not they should boycott supervising the referendum process. To make matters even more questionable, close to 200 diplomats responsible for supervising expatriate voting at Egyptian embassies around the world say they will not supervise it, threatening to discredit a chunk of the voting.

Military granted temporary powers
Against this backdrop, the country is as divided and as explosive as it has ever been since last year's revolution.

Sex mobs target Egypt's women

A lack of security is a chronic problem. The police force is widely discredited as corrupt and inept, and few -- besides its own leaders -- believe it can competently safeguard the integrity of the vote and more importantly the safety and security of voters.

To ensure the vote runs smoothly, the president has turned to the country's military to safeguard the process, and has given it power to temporarily arrest and detain citizens. Already, some have criticized that move as a step back for the country trying to break free from the shackles of military rule and voter intimidation.

Egypt army gets temporary power to arrest civilians ahead of referendum

If the political uncertainty and street violence weren't enough, Egypt's stock market reacted negatively to the recent developments. An attempt by the president's government to increase state revenue by imposing one of the largest tax hikes the country has ever seen backfired on Monday with the stock market plunging in reaction to the news. A few hours later, the president said the tax hike would be frozen and not go into effect yet.  Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund's board of directors was set to meet in Washington, D.C., to decide whether a $4-billion loan should be extended to Egypt.

Still the president and his supporters, along with several of the state's institutions and judicial bodies, say all of these challenges must -- and indeed will -- be overcome to bring Egypt to a historic vote in less than a week's time. Egypt is rapidly approaching its constitutional cliff as the world watches.

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CAIRO — Protests by Islamists allied to President Mohammed Morsi forced Egypt's highest court to adjourn its work indefinitely on Sunday, intensifying a conflict between some of the country's top judges and the head of state.

The Supreme Constitutional Court said it would not convene until its judges could operate without "psychological and material pressure," saying protesters had stopped the judges from reaching the building.

Several hundred Islamists had protested outside the court building ahead of a session in which it was due to examine cases against the legality of the upper house of parliament and the assembly that drafted the new constitution, both bodies dominated by Islamists.

The cases added uncertainty to the crisis ignited by a Nov. 22 decree that temporarily expanded  Morsi's powers, triggering countrywide protests and violence that has deepened the rift between newly empowered Islamists and their opponents. 

Egyptians fear decades of Muslim Brotherhood rule, warn Morsi is no friend to US

The judges said that they had been intimidated when they tried to get to the court on Sunday morning. 

"As they approached the building there was a crowd of people surrounding the court from each side, as well as the road leading to the entrance gates, and on top of the walls, chanting slogans denouncing the court’s judges, and inciting people against them," according to a statement.

The statement added:

"The Supreme Constitutional Court now have no choice but to declare to the great people of Egypt that they cannot immediately work on their holy task under this charged atmosphere of rancor and hatred and the desire for revenge and the fabrication of fictitious conflicts. And we declare the suspension of hearings until we are able to continue our mission and continue in proceedings before the court without any psychological and physical pressures to which we are subjected."

The protest reflected the deep suspicion harbored by Egypt's Islamists towards a court they see as a vestige of the dictator Hosni Mubarak era. The same court ruled in June to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood-led lower house of parliament.

"It is now a power struggle unconstrained by legal means," Gamal Abdul Gawad, a political science professor at the American University of Cairo, told NBC News.

Christians, liberals left out as Islamists back Egypt's draft constitution

"Parties are using physical force to obtain political goals," he added. "They used an act of violence, of physical power to prevent judges from entering the court. It is a turning point in our political development."

According to NBC News' Charlene Gubash, tanks were parked at Cairo's main entrances, indicating that the military was on high alert. 

Protests
Hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power in a June election, gathered outside the court through the night. "Yes to the constitution," declared a banner held aloft by one pro-Morsi protester. Chants demanded the "purging of the judiciary." 

Egypt's Morsi announces vote on draft constitution

The court earlier postponed a session set to examine cases that could further complicate the country's political crisis. 

Three people have been killed and hundreds injured in recent protests. The wave of street demonstrations continued through Sunday with a protest by at least 200,000 Morsi supporters at Cairo University. Morsi opponents are staging an open-ended sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the cradle of the uprising that toppled Mubarak. 

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood hope to end the crisis by passing the new constitution that that was wrapped up on Friday. Morsi received the constitution on Saturday and immediately called a Dec. 15 referendum, urging all Egyptians to go out and vote. 

"The Muslim Brotherhood is determined to go ahead with its own plans regardless of everybody else. There is no compromise on the horizon," said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University. 

The constitution, he said, would likely be approved by a slim majority. "But in this case, how can you run a country with a disputed constitution — a constitution not adopted by consensus?" he said. 

Reuters and NBC News' Charlene Gubash and Taha Belal contributed to this story.

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News Analysis

TAHRIR SQUARE, CAIRO -- This was the place where the revolution began: the roundish square where Egyptians celebrated Mubarak's fall.

This is where they are shouting on bullhorns again, outraged because they say the Muslim Brotherhood has stolen the revolution and is railroading though a constitution that could lock in Muslim Brotherhood rule for 50 years, bringing more Islamic law. They cry -- not against Islam -- but that an extremist interpretation is being forced down their throats by a president who critics say is acting every part the tyrant.  

This is also a warning, they claim, of what may happen across the Middle East. The era of the Muslim Brotherhood appears to have arrived. President Obama has hailed the Brotherhood's President Mohammed Morsi as a pragmatist who helped end the Gaza crisis. Egyptians here think the Brotherhood has conned Washington, just like it conned them.

Christians, liberals left out as Islamists back Egypt's draft constitution

"President Obama is supporting a terrorist," a man told me amid chants of "Leave! Leave!" in Tahrir Square and "Down, down with the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader." Before, it was "Down, down with Mubarak."

Morsi's decree divides Egypt
Egypt was torn in half just over a week ago when Morsi made himself more powerful than Mubarak ever was, and the kings before him. Morsi declared himself above judicial oversight, his decisions final and unassailable. He made himself, according to critics, a new pharaoh on the Nile. Imagine if, after five months in office, an American president announced that he could pass any law he pleased regardless of Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court. Imagine if he said his decisions were final and inspired by God.

Morsi last night apologized for the power grab and said he didn't want the extra authorities, but that they were necessary for the good of the people and to safeguard the revolution. Dictators always say stuff like that. Burn down the village to save it.

At first Egyptians were shocked that Morsi would make such an obvious and, according to Egyptian judges, blatantly illegal move. It's clear now, as some analysts have long feared, that the brotherhood is making sure it doesn't lose power again by taking control of Egypt's constitution. The Brotherhood wants to write the rules of the game. Now they've done that too.

PhotoBlog: Dueling demonstrations in Cairo

Protected by the president's new-found supreme and unquestionable powers, Morsi ordered his Islamist allies to finish writing the constitution and get it on his desk by the end of this week. They did it, even though many independent legal experts, Christians and opposition politicians boycotted the drafting process. The Brotherhood called the new constitution "a jewel." Many Egyptians say it leaves too much room for the implementation of Shariah law.  

The constitution also empowers the people and government with a duty to uphold moral values, a vague clause that could pave the way for vigilante morality police. The constitution barely mentions protecting women's rights. According to women who were originally involved in the drafting process, and who subsequently left because they felt they were being ignored, clauses specifically demanding that women be protected from violence and sex trafficking were dropped because Islamists feared it would conflict with their desire to allow child brides.

ANALYSIS: Crisis tests Egyptians' constitution

The constitution has long been the Muslim Brotherhood's lodestar and, in the past, they have been willing the kill for it. In 1954, not long after a group of 'free officers' carried out a coup against the British-backed monarchy, a Brotherhood assassin tried to kill President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser, a leading free officer, favored a mostly secular, pro-military constitution. The Brotherhood, an Islamist group that supports the return of Arab and Islamic unity and the revival of ancient Muslim glory and Shariah laws, couldn't accept the new rules.

The Brotherhood's assassination attempt failed. The gunman's eight bullets, fired while Nasser was giving a speech in Alexandria, all missed. The Brotherhood was banned. The group went underground, at times tolerated but more often repressed by Nasser's successors: presidents Mubarak and Anwar el-Sadat. When the revolts started against Mubarak, the Brotherhood saw that fate had given them another chance.

Muslim Brotherhood's calculated rise to power
Looking back now, it all seems so obvious, yet many Egyptians refused to see it coming. In fact, many of the secular revolutionaries backed the Brotherhood, arguing they were better allies than the hated military. The Brotherhood played its cards well.

The Brotherhood was late to join the anti-Mubarak revolts in 2011. When students and liberals initially occupied Tahrir Square, it looked like it might be a passing thing. The Brotherhood either didn't appreciate its significance, or wanted to wait to see who was winning.

I remember watching the Brothers march into the square. They arrived in a large group of perhaps five hundred. Nearly all were men. Many had beards. Most were dressed in poorly cut dark suits. They occupied a corner of Tahrir near a Kentucky Fried Chicken. They came with microphones and wood to build a platform. The other protesters in the square seemed happy to have the support of the new arrivals.

Egypt's Morsi, top judges compromise to defuse soaring tensions over decree

The protests continued to grow. Labor unions went on strike. The military enacted a coup against Mubarak. President Obama withdrew his support for Washington's long-time Arab friend. And Mubarak the president was no more.

The Brotherhood first said it wouldn't seek the new presidency at all. It promised to exist solely as an influential member of civil society. Back then, many Egyptians feared the Brotherhood. It was a semi-secret group. It had a small office in a Cairo apartment building with a sign on the door the size of an index card. Mubarak-era officials had often described the Brotherhood as a group of terrorists. One security official I know called the Brotherhood the most dangerous group in the world. But in the heady 1960s-like days after Mubarak's resignation, the Brotherhood's bad reputation only seemed to give the group more credibility. They'd been oppressed by the man. It was a new day. Everyone, it appeared, deserved a new beginning.

The Brotherhood went to work. It organized its considerable finances. It built a big new headquarters with far bigger signs on the doors. It sent its representatives around the world, especially to Washington, on a charm offensive. We've been oppressed, they claimed. We were slandered by a tyrant. We're not what you've heard. We can unite the Sunni world against Iran. We can help bring Israeli-Palestinian peace. There were many promises of a great future.

Even then, the Brotherhood's focus on the constitution was clear. The Brotherhood insisted the constitution be drafted only after a new president was elected. The military was overseeing a transition back then. The Brotherhood argued that the military couldn't be trusted to oversee the creation of such an important document. Many Egyptians agreed -- a decision some sorely regret today.

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin discusses the current unrest in Egypt

Morsi won the election by a narrow margin and then five months into his term, made himself a dictator and ordered his Islamist friends to quickly finish the constitution. Morsi has said he'll drop his extraordinary powers as soon as the constitution is approved in a referendum in December. Islamists are convinced they'll be able to use their grassroots network of activists to win the referendum like they won the elections. Western diplomats tend to agree.

Yet the United States has remained mostly silent on all this, urging both sides to stay calm and work it out. Washington's policy seems to be that what's going on is simply democracy in progress as Egyptians learn to use their new rights.

But in Tahrir Square people seem convinced the Brotherhood isn't testing its fledgling wings. They say Morsi knows exactly what he's doing, Washington be warned. 

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CAIRO -- Islamists approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.

The vote by the constituent assembly advanced a charter with an Islamist bent that rights experts say could give Muslim clerics oversight over legislation and bring restrictions on freedom of speech, women's rights and other liberties.

The draft, which the assembly plans to deliver to the president Saturday, must be put to a nationwide referendum within 30 days. Morsi said Thursday it will be held "soon."

Morsi added that the decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which provoked protests and violence from Egyptians fearing a new dictator was emerging less than two years after they ousted Hosni Mubarak, was "for an exceptional stage."

"It will end as soon as the people vote on a constitution," he told state television on Thursday night. "There is no place for dictatorship."

External link: English translation of Egypt's draft constitution

The Islamist-dominated assembly that has been working on the constitution for months raced to pass it, voting article by article on the draft's more than 230 articles for more than 16 hours. The lack of inclusion was on display in the nationally televised gathering: Of the 85 members in attendance, there was not a single Christian and only four women, all Islamists. Many of the men wore beards, the hallmark of Muslim conservatives.

For weeks, liberal, secular and Christian members, already a minority on the 100-member panel, have been withdrawing to protest what they call the Islamists' hijacking of the process.

"This constitution represents the diversity of the Egyptian people. All Egyptians, male and female, will find themselves in this constitution," Essam el-Erian, a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared to the assembly after the last articles were passed just after sunrise Friday.

ANALYSIS: Crisis tests Egyptians' constitution

"We will implement the work of this constitution to hold in high esteem God's law, which was only ink on paper before, and to protect freedoms that were not previously respected," he said.

The sudden rush to finish came as the latest twist in a week-long crisis pitting Brotherhood veteran Morsi and his Islamist supporters against a mostly secular and liberal opposition and the powerful judiciary. Voting had not been expected for another two months. But the assembly abruptly moved it up in order to pass the draft before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court rules on Sunday on whether to dissolve the panel.

Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

Ahmed Youssef / EPA

Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

"I am saddened to see this come out while Egypt is so divided," Egypt's top reform leader, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said, speaking on private Al-Nahar TV. But he predicted the document would not last long. "It will be part of political folklore and will go to the garbage bin of history."

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin discusses Egypt unrest

A new opposition bloc led by ElBaradei and other liberals said the assembly had lost its legitimacy.

"It is trying to impose a constitution monopolized by one trend and is the furthest from national consensus, produced in a farcical way," the National Salvation Front said in a statement, read by Waheed Abdel-Meguid, one of the assembly members who withdrew.

Thursday's vote escalates the already bruising confrontation sparked last week when Morsi gave himself near absolute powers by neutralizing the judiciary, the last branch of the state not in his hands. Morsi banned the courts from dissolving the constitutional assembly or the upper house of parliament and from reviewing his own decisions.

In a sign of the divisions, protesters camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square who were watching the interview chanted against Morsi and raised their shoes in the air in contempt. 

The president's edicts sparked a powerful backlash in one of the worst bouts of turmoil since last year's ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. At least 200,000 people protested in Cairo's Tahrir square earlier this week demanding he rescind the edicts.

Street clashes have already erupted between the two camps in the past week, leaving at least two people dead and hundreds injured. And more violence is possible.

The opposition plans another large protest for Friday, and the Brotherhood has called a similar massive rally for the following day, though they decided to move it from Tahrir to avoid frictions. Bands of youths have been daily battling police on a road leading off the square and close to the U.S. Embassy.

Defiance
The Constitutional Court's announcement that it would rule on the legitimacy of the assembly was in direct defiance of Morsi's edicts. It will also rule Sunday on whether to dissolve the upper house of parliament, which is overwhelmingly held by Islamists. Most of the nation's judges are on indefinite strike to protest the edicts.

It is not clear what would happen to the approved draft if the court dissolves the assembly. The crisis could move out of the realm of legal questions and even more into the more volatile street, to be decided by which side can bring the most support.

The opposition is considering whether to call for a boycott of any referendum on the constitution or to try to rally a "no" vote, said Hamdeen Sabahi, a National Salvation Front leader who ran in this year's presidential race and came in a surprisingly strong third.

"The people should not be made to choose between a dictatorial declaration or a constitution that doesn't represent all the people," he told independent ONTV, referring to Morsi's decrees. "He is pushing Egypt to more division and confrontation."

During Thursday's session, assembly head Hossam al-Ghiryani doggedly pushed the members to finish. When one article received 16 objections, he pointed out that would require postponing the vote 48 hours under the body's rules. "Now I'm taking the vote again," he said, and all but four members dropped their objections. In the session's final hours, several new articles were hastily written up and added to resolve lingering issues.

"We will teach this constitution to our sons," al-Ghiryani told the gathering.

More Egypt coverage from NBC News

Islamist members of the panel defended the fast tracking. Hussein Ibrahim of the Brotherhood said the draft reflected six months of debate, including input from liberals before they withdrew.

"People want the constitution because they want stability. Go to villages, to poorer areas, people want stability," he said.

Over the past week, about 30 members have pulled out of the assembly, with mainly Islamists brought in to replace some. As a result, every article passed overwhelmingly.

Human Rights Watch Rights groups criticized the hurried manner in which the constituent assembly pushed the draft charter through, saying it not the right way to guarantee fundamental rights or the rule of law.

"Rushing through a draft while serious concerns about key rights protections remain unaddressed will create huge problems down the road that won't be easy to fix,"said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for the New York-based group.

The draft largely reflects the conservative vision of the Islamists, with articles that rights activists, liberals and others fear will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities and on civil liberties in general.

'Morals and values'
One article that passed underlined that the state will protect "the true nature of the Egyptian family ... and promote its morals and values," phrasing that suggests the state could prevent anything deemed to undermine the family.

The draft says citizens are equal under the law but an article specifically establishing women's equality was dropped because of disputes over the phrasing.

As in past constitutions, the new draft said the "principles of Islamic law" will be the basis of law.

Previously, the term "principles" allowed wide leeway in interpreting Shariah. But in the draft, a separate new article is added that seeks to define "principles" by pointing to particular theological doctrines and their rules. That could give Islamists the tool for insisting on stricter implementation of rulings of Shariah.

Another new article states that Egypt's most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah, a measure critics fear will lead to oversight of legislation by clerics.

The draft also includes bans on "insulting or defaming all prophets and messengers" or even "insulting humans" — broad language that analysts warned could be used to crack down on many forms of speech.

It also preserves much of military's immunity from parliamentary scrutiny, putting its budget in the hands of the National Defense Council, which includes the president, the heads of the two houses of parliament and top generals.

The final draft contains historic changes to Egypt's system of government. It limits to eight years the amount of time a president can serve, for example. Mubarak was in power for three decades. It also introduces a degree of oversight over the military establishment - though not enough for critics.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

Members of Egypt's Constituent Assembly talk during the last voting session on a new draft constitution at the Shoura Assembly in Cairo on Thursday.

News analysis

Updated at 4:40 a.m. ET: CAIRO, Egypt — Constitutions are often messy affairs. Our own Constitutional Convention, in 1787, was convened secretly, behind guarded doors. Many delegates were suspicious it was all a ploy by George Washington to wrest power from personal freedoms.  Some delegates walked out before the hard work even began. And once the writing was finished, four of the 13 states didn't even ratify it.

But few constitutions have generated the road bumps — or media coverage — that Egypt’s new, post-Hosni Mubarak constitution has. 

There are several reasons why this particular document is getting so much attention. It’s not only because it would detail Egypt’s future government and the values upheld by it. All constitutions do that. What makes this constitutional process unusual is the way in which it’s been hijacked by the political crisis playing out in Egypt today — a crisis that pits Islamists, led by Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, against their opponents, led primarily by Egypt's judges.

Liberals, Christians left out as Islamists back Egypt's draft constitution

When Egypt’s first "Constitutional Assembly" met to begin its work, the 100 delegates knew they were embarking on something historic — for the first time in Egypt’s long history, they were tasked to produce a document that showcased and protected Egypt’s fledgling democracy. But the euphoria didn't last long. Within months, Egypt’s Islamist-laden parliament — the body that created the assembly— was dissolved by court order, driven by mostly Mubarak-appointed judges.

Shortly thereafter, a series of legal challenges threatened the constitution-writing panel itself. By this time it had become clear to non-Islamist delegates that the Islamists on the panel were determined to write a defense of Islamic aspirations. More than one-quarter of them — representing secular Egyptians, liberals,  Christians and other minorities — walked out. It appeared the panel, by then entirely Islamist, would be dissolved by the judges.

It’s with this backdrop that Morsi made public his controversial decree last Thursday. In a sweeping retort to the judges, he declared that his every ruling, the remaining upper house of parliament, and the Constitutional Assembly, all be above the law. He gave the assembly two more months to complete its work and offer up a final document for ratification. That, as we now know, triggered the turmoil in the streets which some are already calling Egypt's "Second Revolution." Two young Egyptians have been killed, and hundreds wounded in clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi protesters and riot police. But the international media still calls it a "constitutional crisis."

Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood colleagues then decided to go for broke, and gamble that a pro-Islamist constitution rammed through the assembly would be ratified by the Egyptian people.

That is far from a certainty. More than 200,000 opponents demonstrated in a massive show of support in Tahrir Square on Tuesday night, calling Morsi’s decree — and the new constitution – illegal. 

"This is nonsensical and one of the steps that shouldn't be taken, given the background of anger and resentment to the current constitutional assembly," opposition leader and former head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, told Reuters. 

‘You had your revolution. This one is ours’
Another large anti-Morsi protest is now scheduled for Friday. And the Muslim Brotherhood is organizing its own "million-man" march on Saturday, one it now says will not end at Tahrir Square to avoid any confrontation with protesters who have turned the Square into a "Muslim Brotherhood-Free Zone."

Khaled Mahmoud, a 26-year-old volunteer medic who has set up a makeshift clinic for wounded protesters just off the Square, told NBC News he would tell Saturday’s would-be Muslim Brotherhood protesters, "Step back. You had your revolution. This one is ours."

But now — in yet another morphing from its intended role — Egypt’s new constitution has become a pawn in Morsi’s exit from all the chaos. The assembly, which, again, had two more months to work, is racing through its completion in just 48 hours.

More Egypt coverage from NBC News

As the Constitutional Assembly put each article to a vote Thursday afternoon, liberal delegate Mohamed Mohyeldin objected.

"There is a rush in the voting, we should slow down the pace, so that we do not give the impression that we have a problem that we are afraid of and are running away from. We have two months," he said.

But on State TV the speaker, Hossam al Gheryani, said in reply, "We are waiting for those who want to return…we would be happy for them to participate ... [but] there are those who said they wanted nothing to do with this Constitutional Assembly."

Bishop Paula was among the angry delegates who refused to return and vote Thursday.

"We know already the result of the vote because of the unbalanced [Islamist] formation of the assembly. The result is settled whether we go or not," said the representative of the Orthodox Church on live TV. 

And what about the constitution itself? As it rolls off a government website, it appears to be in every way the expression of a pro-Islamist society about half the nation hoped for, and the other half feared. It would not only make conservative Sharia law the law of the land, but expand that, constitutional experts here say, to "dangerous" levels. Besides Islam, only Christianity and Judaism — fellow Abrahamic religions — would be recognized. 

Ominously, its Article 11 reads: "The State and society shall be committed to safeguarding and protecting ethics and public morals." One expert on Egyptian TV warned that this would lay the groundwork for the appearance of "vice and virtue" (vigilante) squads.

Morsi’s speech to the nation Thursday night explained the reasons behind his decree, and set the timeline for a national vote on the new, fast-tracked constitution. He has 30 days to conclude the ballot. If it passes — and the Muslim Brotherhood has yet to lose a vote — it will allow Morsi to remove a large monkey from his back. He could then transfer his legislative powers to a new (likely Islamist) parliament, elected within two months of ratifying the constitution.

So, in theory, the current "constitutional crisis" could be over in three months. Or there could be a new, even more turbulent one, further splitting apart the nation.

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London who is currently on assignment in Cairo. He has covered the Middle East since the 1970s.

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DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrians began voting Sunday on a new constitution that's meant by President Bashar Assad's regime to placate critics but seen by the opposition as a ploy to divert attention from a brutal government crackdown in which thousands have been killed.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET), Al Jazeera reported.

Syria has defied international calls to halt attacks on rebel enclaves and at least 89 people were killed nationwide on the eve of the referendum.

Assad presented the revised charter — which allows for at least a theoretical opening of the country's political system — as an effort to placate critics and quell the 11-month uprising against his rule.

The new charter would create a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by the same family dynasty since Assad's father Hafez seized power in a coup in 1963. Such change was unthinkable a year ago.

After 11 months of bloodshed, however, Assad's opponents say the referendum and other promises of reform are not enough and have called for a boycott of the vote.

Assad was roundly criticized Friday at a major international conference on the Syrian crisis in Tunisia, where U.S., European and Arab officials began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the regime falls.

President Barack Obama said Friday of Assad's rule: "It is time for that regime to move on."

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Assad's crackdown belied promised reforms.

"That kind of logic unfortunately renders any kind of reform meaningless," he said. "To fight on the one hand with your people and then to claim that there is reform is contradictory."

Still, Assad enjoys substantial support in many parts of the country. Some have benefited from his policies, others fear chaos or sectarian civil war if he falls.

The insular nature of the regime makes the extent and character of that support hard to measure, and the regime has prevented most media from operating freely in the country during the uprising.

Syrian activists: The world has abandoned us

In the capital Damascus, where Assad retains support among religious minorities and the business class, many said they were eager to vote.

"This constitution is not for one faction against the other," said Suhban Elewi, a 55-year-old businessman who trades in antiquities. "It is for the nation and for all the Syrian people."

Elewi said he planned to vote yes, and dismissed opposition calls to boycott the vote.

"The country is going forward with them or without them," he said.

Posters around town urged people to vote. "Don't turn your back on voting," one said.

Another — showing the red, black and white Syrian flag — touted new constitution. "Syria's constitution: Freedom of belief," it said, referring to clauses protecting religious minorities.

Syrian Interior Minster Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Shaar said more than 14,000 voting centers have been set up for more than 14 million eligible voters across the country.

But the suggestion of political reform led by Assad's regime rang hollow in many parts of the country, where government security forces continued their deadly crackdown on rebels seeking to end Assad's rule.

The violence could also prevent the vote taking place nationwide.

An activist in a neighborhood in the central city of Homs that government forces have besieged and shelled daily for one month laughed when asked about the vote.

"How can they ask us to talk about a new constitution when they are shelling our neighborhood?" said Abu Mohammed Ibrahim from the embattled neighborhood of Baba Amr via Skype. "They are hitting us with all types of weapons. What constitution? What referendum?"

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