World Tribune
11/23/2012
Egypt’s first Islamist president, five months after his election, has assumed dictatorial powers.
President Mohammed Morsi has issued a decree that makes his decisions immune from parliamentary oversight or judicial appeal.
“Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh, a major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences,” Egyptian opposition leader Mohammed El Baradei said.
On Nov. 22, the president, a longtime leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, amended Egypt’s constitution that granted him unassailable authority…
…The United States, particularly President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has praised Morsi for his leadership in the Middle East. Washington has sought to provide billions of dollars worth of debt relief for Egypt and supported a $4.8 billion loan by the International Monetary Fund.
The Morsi regime has been targeted by thousands of protesters. For the last four days, demonstrators have clashed with Egyptian security forces…
The complete article is at the World Tribune.
Related: Busted “Spring”: Well Now! Who Saw This Coming??
Read more at the link.
Clashes Continues in Egypt as Morsi Defends New Powers
Thousands of opponents of Egypt’s Islamist president clashed with his supporters in cities across the country Friday, burning several offices of the Muslim Brotherhood.
More video: Tear Gas Fills Tahrir Square
A police car was surrounded by protestors, and police use tear gas to fight them off in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
At FoxNews.com, Morsi opponents, backers clash in widest violence yet as Islamist president defends powers
Update: Egyptian Protesters Tell Morsi He Went Too Far
…With a constitutional assembly on the brink of collapse and protesters battling the police in the streets over the slow pace of change, President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree on Thursday granting himself broad powers above any court as the guardian of Egypt’s revolution, and used his new authority to order the retrial of Hosni Mubarak.
Mr. Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt’s first elected president, portrayed his decree as an attempt to fulfill popular demands for justice and protect the transition to a constitutional democracy. But the unexpected breadth of the powers he seized raised immediate fears that he might become a new strongman. Seldom in history has a postrevolutionary leader amassed so much personal power only to relinquish it swiftly.
“An absolute presidential tyranny,” Amr Hamzawy, a liberal member of the dissolved Parliament and prominent political scientist, wrote in an online commentary. “Egypt is facing a horrifying coup against legitimacy and the rule of law and a complete assassination of the democratic transition.”…
And leading up to all of this, Coptic Pope Threatens To Withdraw Christian Representatives From Constitutional Assembly After Islamists Attempt To Make Sharia The Law Of The Land…
Pope Tawadros II, the new head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, is threatening to withdraw Coptic representatives from the Constituent Assembly, the 100-member committee entrusted with the task of drafting a new Egyptian constitution, over concerns that the new constitution will grant an even greater role to Sharia law. Five of the 100 members of the Constituent Assembly are Copts.
Article II of the current constitution states that “Islam is the religion of the state, and the Arabic language is its official language. The principles of Islamic law are the chief source of legislation.” The Constituent Assembly may remove the phrase “the principles of” from the article, effectively making Sharia the law of the land.
“There will be seas of blood everywhere in the coming period if Islamic Sharia law is not applied,” Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, a prominent Salafi cleric, said recently. “For this reason, I call on Egypt’s president Mohammed Morsi to ensure the victory of Sharia and save the country from the coming bloody battles.”…
Update 2: Protesters Storm Muslim Brotherhood Headquarters in Alexandria
