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Subscribe to RSSFresh from winning praise for brokering the Gaza cease-fire, Mohammed Morsi sets Egyptian politics ablaze by granting himself sweeping new powers. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 5:05 p.m. ET: Opposition protesters clashed with police in several Egyptian cities Friday after new Islamist President Mohammed Morsi awarded himself sweeping new powers.
Police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse tens of thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of anti-regime protests that ousted longtime U.S.-backed leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
"The people want to bring down the regime," shouted protesters, echoing a chant used in the anti-Mubarak uprising. "Get out, Morsi," they chanted.
State TV also said Morsi opponents set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia.
Clashes also erupted between police and opposition protesters in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the southern city of Assiut and in Giza, the sister city of the capital. In Alexandria, Morsi opponents hurled stones at Brotherhood supporters outside a mosque and stormed a nearby office of the group.
However, Muslim Brotherhood backers gathered in front of the presidential palace in northern Cairo to support Morsi -- illustrating a widening gulf over Egypt’s future.
Tarek Fawzy / AP
Protesters opposed to President Mohammed Morsi break into the offices of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, in Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday.
Wide powers
Buoyed by accolades from around the world for mediating a truce between Hamas and Israel, Morsi on Thursday ordered that an Islamist-dominated assembly writing the new constitution could not be dissolved by legal challenges.
Other changes give Morsi power to take security measures to protect his position, which rights groups say are like new emergency laws.
Protesters have burned a CSF (police truck) tear gas very heavy now, #Egypt #Tahrir
— Bel Trew - بÙ� ترÙ� (@Beltrew) November 23, 2012
Morsi belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood until he ran for the presidency and still depends on the group for political support.
On Friday, Morsi confirmed that he will move forward on his plans because he insisted they were for the good of the country.
Complete coverage of the Middle East & North Africa
"I am for all Egyptians. I will not be biased against any son of Egypt,'' Morsi told the crowd outside the presidential palace, adding that he was working for social and economic stability and the rotation of power.
"Opposition in Egypt does not worry me, but it has to be real and strong,'' he said in response to his critics.
Morsi also said Friday that his government would pay $5,000 to the families of those who died in the protests to oust Mubarak and $3,333 to those who were injured.
Tahrir square is flooding with protesters. Street battles on at least two streets. #egypt twitter.com/ibnezra/status…
— joseph dana (@ibnezra) November 23, 2012
'New pharaoh'
The changes, announced late Thursday, prompted outrage among secularists and liberals.
Critics accuse Egypt president of trying to become 'new pharaoh' with decree
Mohammed ElBaradei, a prominent pro-democracy figure and former head of the U.N.'s nuclear agency, accused Morsi of declaring himself a "new pharaoh."
Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that cld have dire consequences
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) November 22, 2012
"Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh," ElBaradei said on Twitter. "A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences."
"Morsi a 'temporary' dictator','' was the headline in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
By ousting military chiefs, Egypt's Morsi shows he's a force to be reckoned with
The U.S. State Department signaled its concern Friday over Morsi’s declarations.
"One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "The current constitutional vacuum in Egypt can only be resolved by the adoption of a constitution that includes checks and balances, and respects fundamental freedoms, individual rights, and the rule of law consistent with Egypt's international commitments."
Nuland called for calm and for all parties in Egypt to resolve differences through "democratic dialogue."
Meanwhile, the United Nations expressed serious concerns Friday about human rights and stability in Egypt.
Tarek Fawzy / AP
Protesters hurl stones during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi in Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday.
"We are very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration on human rights and the rule of law in Egypt," Rupert Colville, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay's spokesman, told a news briefing at the United Nations in Geneva. "We also fear this could lead to a very volatile situation over the next few days, starting today in fact."
Morsi's decree is also bound to worry Western allies, particularly the United States, a generous benefactor to Egypt's army.
NBC News' Charlene Gubash, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
kind of interesting that after he has a pow wow with Hillary and talks to Obama on the phone he pretty much takes control of the gov in Egypt
LOL... is that tin foil hat too tight?
Nearly every time an Arab country holds true elections, the people vote in the extremists and later come to regret it. While Morsi may have quit the Brotherhood to run for political office, it is becoming apparent that he still belongs...
Until the civilized wake up and truly realize that organized religion is the scourge of society and needs to be put down like a snake-bitten farm animal, this maniacal fairy tale RUBBISH will continue to drag us all down.
That's what I'm saying. I don't care what you believe- just leave the rest of us out of it. Why is this so d*mned difficult?
Sax
That was no accident. I'll bet he was told something along the line, "Look you two bit despot, you get this thing with Gaza under control and do it now or kiss off one penny of foreign aid from the US."
hillary will fix it... yeah, when she gives the right amount of money your country has to borrows with interest, 'at your expense' to the brotherhood of muslims so they can use it against you and israel !!!!!!!!!!!!
get a clue, they are screwing you americans in more ways than one...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
then, she will do it again when the next problem happens and you know it will...
Emergency powers and a lack of review by the courts means dictatorship. This is what happens when mystics claim knowledge and authority.
Muslims will never find peace until Islam is out of their governments and of course that will never happen. Which promises an ongoing climate of tit for tat. The mid east will destroy itself before peace can come. Sorry for all the innocents.
For this life of me, I can't understand WHY anybody is at all surprised over this. Obviously the people over there are so brainwashed that they will believe the craziest things. Thank God I live in a country where I am allowed to think for myself, at least for now.....
Morisi needs to take a page from the obama play book, do it quietly behind your peoples backs and set-up distractions. Cultivate your MSM.
No one is as slick as Bo.
tin foil is available on aisle 5. :)
How much money are we giving them?
And for what?
C H A N G E we can believe in.
our aid was to buy off the egyptian military, which over the years has actually worked pretty well.
LOL..Egypt seems to be just like the USA..someone wins the election and the losing half is still crying.
Can't make all happy..never will happen!
And the egyptian citizens thought Morisi was the answer, they 'voted' him in - and now they realize what they've got - I feel sorry for the ones that will die, be excuted, disappear - that's what tyrants do - I especially feel sorry for the women, who if their men folk die, disappear will be S.O.L. Weep for them.
Wolf didn't get to wear the sheep's clothing for very long.
Didn't take long for the F A N G S to come out.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranians have an intractable wild bull attitude. There is no reasoning or negotiating with them. All the administration can do is play toreador and hope they don't get a horn in the crotch. Eventually someone will.
What a dumb move! Morsi is simply another testimony that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"--Machiavelli
All hell is ready to break loose.
What is the date?
I think we have about 2 weeks left.
I have great confidence in Barack fixing the whole worlds problems.
He should resign on move on to the U N.
I see that as his next logical move after for more years.
Then he can keep screwing America.
and then you can keep whining. :)
The pointless anger and whining by some of the people who post on this site gets to be totally asinine after a while. Just think about this for a minute: Obama has presided over the worst employment level that has EVER seen a sitting President get re-elected. The overall economy is STILL cr*p. The Middle East is as bad of a sh*tstorm as it has been in 30 years. Yet, despite all that, he was in fact re-elected, as I said. Why? It's not that people are stupid (unless you're talking about the people who vetted the GOP candidates). It's not that people want free stuff- I don't need any free stuff, and I didn't vote for Romney. It's because all of you idiotic right-wingers who pi*s and moan about how much Democrats suck can't find a decent candidate who is worth voting for. Every election, the Republican choice is between nut jobs of one kind or another, and spoiled rich kids, and then when you lose, you insist it's because the candidate wasn't ENOUGH of a nut job.
However, instead of looking inward, you decide to whine about Obama for EVERYTHING- next you'll be telling me that the broken washing machine at your house is his fault. We have REAL issues in this country and on this planet, and if we're going to fix them, some people in this country are going to need to grow up, seriously....blaming Obama for what the President of Egypt does isn't helping, it's just childish...
the losing half...
hey pal all of america will be losing real soon...
your so-called leader ignored the real problems for 4 freaking years at your expense and is sending you into a nose dive with obamacare, prepare to crash americans...
it's coming to america-poverty stricken fools !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just another egomaniac.
careful what you wish for now you have muslim brotherhood they are so charming.
Egypt's leader acting like he thinks he's the 'new pharoah' eh ... guess we all know what that's like. Does he say "deal with me" too? And the UN brought up possible 'human rights' violations ... wonder who in the UN brought that up. If so ... don't you dare criticize!
This is all wonderful news as it relates to Obama's foreign policy **. Islamic President Morsi supposedly "brokered" the cease fire between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza Strip. keep in mind that he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama has been spoon fed Muslim ideas for the first 31 years of his life and has done nothing but apologize each time the US supposedly offends the Muslim Brotherhood and Community at large. who exactly do we have in the White-House? Certainly not a President who considers Israel an ally by any of the terms of any other President since 1948 when Israel was formed as a sovereign state.
All I can say is WOW....not only does our President apologize for offending Muslims but it appears he also wants the US to support and fund them....who's side are we on anyway.
obama supplied weapons to isreal that bush refused to. Sounds like an ally to me. And the billions keep going to isreal. sounds like an ally to me.
I know, facts are painful to your delusions, but such is life. :)
Gee, who could've seen this coming? I'm actually surprised it took so long
You're a wonderful human being and we're all in awe of you!
Why aren't you working for the State Department?
Well it did take three phone calls from Obama before he got the OK.
All hell's breaking loose.
all hell's breaking lose? lol, yeah, right.
and obama approved this? lol, yeah, right.
you haters are funny. :)
The leaders of Muslim brotherhood have one set of mind, dictatorship under their interpretation of the law of Islam that would make them the Ayatollahs of Egypt.
get use to it, that will be how america looks with your king obama...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
people are so easily fooled !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm used to people whining about obama, that much is true. lol. "this is how america looks" in an article about egypt? lol.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" " We won't get fooled again" (The Who circa 1970)
We have the same proplem here with obama and his power grabbing but we dont do anything except gripe on news vines.
What power was that, wind hole?
Windell
WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
windell jones==Windell you got that right!! It seems that BROOKE IN FT LAUDERDALE, Buffaloes Roam have been missing the news or have been just listening to the Obama Bunch.
Egypt was given the gift of freedom, then they decided with that freedom to vote into office a terrorist group. Now they fine that this was a mistake. This is exactlywhat happened in this country. Obama the man of executive orders and the CEO of Obama-Care. That might be the next thing Obama wants to be Pharaoh or President of the whole world.
windell jones
Can someone please tell me what power has Obama grabbed?