The paper will investigate the positions taken up by Egypt’s Islamist movements and the secular tendencies currently in opposition with regard to the formulation of new constitution in the country. On the face of it the process of developing a new constitution for Egypt after the fall of President Mubarak’s regime has been at the centre of the often violent confrontations that have over the last year pitted the Muslim Brothers and their Islamist allies against a loose coalition of opposition forces. According to the constitutional amendments that were accepted in a referendum in March 2011 against the vote of the seculars, the procedure towards a new constitution would the following: First would come the election of the national assembly with its two chambers, then the two chambers in united session would select 100 members of an assembly tasked with forming a new constitution. Finally the proposal of the constitutional assembly would be put to the vote in a new referendum. From day one the secular opposition strongly challenged the procedure at several levels: Firstly they objected to the parliamentary elections coming before the issuing of new constitution. Secondly they refused to accept the composition of the constitutional assembly both in its first version from March 2012 and again when a revised composition was decided in June 2012. Several of the secular members also withdrew or threatened to withdraw from the assembly at various times. Thirdly an array of criticism was levelled against the draft text as it emerged in the autumn of 2012. Finally the seculars argued vehemently against the legitimacy of the referendum being held in December 2012. The paper will be based on a close reading of the debate over the assembly and the draft constitution. It will focus mainly on the views of four political groups: the Freedom and Justice Party linked to the Muslim Brothers, the salafi Hizb al-Nur, the liberal Dustur Party of Muhammad al-Baradei and the Popular Current grouped around Hamdin al-Sabahi. It will be argued that rather than the struggle being over secular versus Islamist values, the assembly, the constitution, and the procedural rules of the process became primarily symbols in a struggle for positions of power in the emerging new political order of Egypt.