Egypt president Mohammed Morsi's powergrab brings angry clashes

Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clash in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012. Opponents set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices in three Egyptian cities, state television reported, as rival rallies gathered nationwide a day after Morsi assumed sweeping powers. / AFP/Getty Images

CAIRO 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, in the most violent and widespread protests since Mohammed Morsi came to power, sparked by his move to grant himself sweeping powers.

The violence, which left 100 people injured, reflected the increasingly dangerous polarization in Egypt over what course it will take nearly two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Critics of Morsi accused him of seizing dictatorial powers with his decrees a day earlier that make him immune to judicial oversight and give him authority to take any steps against "threats to the revolution". On Friday, the president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edits were necessary to stop a "minority" that was trying to block the goals of the revolution.

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the "umbrella" of the courts to "harm the country."

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Clashes between his opponents and members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood erupted in several cities. In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, anti-Morsi crowds attacked Brotherhood backers coming out of a mosque, raining stones and firecrackers on them. The Brothers held up prayer rugs to protect themselves and the two sides pelted each other with stones and chunks of marble, leaving at least 15 injured. The protesters then stormed a nearby Brotherhood office.

State TV reported that protesters burned offices of the Brotherhood's political arm in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, east of Cairo.

In the capital Cairo, security forces pumped volleys of tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters clashing with riot police on streets several blocks from Tahrir Square and in front of the nearby parliament building.

Tens of thousands of activists massed in Tahrir itself, denouncing Morsi and chanting "Leave, leave" and "Morsi is Mubarak ... Revolution everywhere." Many of them represented Egypt's upper-class, liberal elite, which have largely stayed out of protests in past months but were prominent in the streets during the anti-Mubarak uprising that began Jan. 25, 2011.

"We are in a state of revolution. He is crazy of he thinks he can go back to one-man rule," one protester, Sara Khalili, said of Morsi.

"If the Brotherhood's slogan is 'Islam is the solution' ours is 'submission is not the solution'," said Khalili, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo. "God does not call for submission to another man's will."

Frustration had been growing for months with Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, who came to office in June. Critics say the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, has been moving to monopolize power and that he has done little to tackle mounting economic problems and continuing insecurity, much less carry out deeper reforms.

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[artestfan]

WAAAH! Morsi is expanding his powers! Oh well he tried to bring back Parliament, after SCAF and the courts conspired and dissolved it. Now the legislative power is his until a new Parliament is elected. Typical Egyptians are so stupid. They let the Mubarak loyalist secularists use the fear of extremist to control them.

[mturner1938]

Back in June 2012 Morsi was a candidate for the presidency of Egypt and he had this to say:

"The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal"

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/egyptian-president-muhamed-morsi-jihad-is-our-path-death-in-the-name-of-allah-is-our-goal/

[OweninNJ]

president, dictator, phaoroh, living god, whatever...

[Jesus_to_ground_control]

So it is up to the free world to stop a retarded nation (Iran) from having nuclear weapons.

[wfw3536]

We'll see if Obama stands up for the folks in Egypt who thought they were voting for a democracy. I am sure Obama will be silent like he was when the folks in Iran wanted freedom. If Obama wants to do something, now is the time to withhold the couple of billion in aid we give Egypt. I guess the Arab spring is turning into a failure.

[Bush-cheney-R-Terrorists]

So Morsi thinks the US will stay out of it as long as Israel is not bothered? That's not a good bet. What is with all of these unbelievable miscalculations? First by Hamas, now by Morsi?

[WeHappyFew]

I told you. Egyptians aren't going to take this from anyone. They want freedom.

[mturner1938]

Do you really think so?

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/egyptian-president-muhamed-morsi-jihad-is-our-path-death-in-the-name-of-allah-is-our-goal/

[dhs47]

ultraconservative cleric Mohammed Abdel-Maksoud. "Whoever insults the sultan, God humiliates him," he added.

Gosh, only one year in office and he is already a sultan.

Kind of tells it all

[tsigili]

The dictators seem to be coming from every corner.

[OnTheRoad01]

OK, so is this the 'Arab Fall'? And if so, who will we support this time? Another question is 'Did the people in the street in Egypt really think that they were getting a 'Free' country?????