International experts said the constitution does not significantly alter the role of religion in Egyptian law. But it raises the stakes in future contests over who will interpret it. Although the new charter preserves an article from the old constitution declaring that the principles of Islamic law are a main source of legislation, it adds a new article, No. 219, which broadly defines those principles as the established schools of Sunni Muslim scholarship. Independent scholars have said that whether the new provisions make a difference will depend on who controls their application.

Zaid al-Ali, a researcher at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental organization, said the constitution’s principal defects were not about religion. The biggest problem, he said, is that it protects the Egyptian military from legal and parliamentary oversight, engraving its autonomy in the constitution. Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood had said privately for months that they were willing to provide the military such constitutional protections in order to ease the transition of power from the generals who assumed control from Mr. Mubarak.