Mursi Decree Fuels Egyptian Protests, Raises U.S. Concern

Khaled Elfqi/EPA

Egyptians protester against President Mohamed Morsi during a rally over Morsi decrees in Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, on Nov. 23, 2012. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said that a decree granting him sweeping powers was not designed to 'settle scores' with the opposition, but to ensure national stability.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied across Egypt against a decree by President Mohamed Mursi that placed his decisions above judicial review.

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Protesters storm an office of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice party and set fires in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt, on Nov. 23, 2012. Opponents and supporters of Morsi clashed across Egypt on Friday, the day after the president granted himself sweeping new powers that critics fear can allow him to be a virtual dictator. Photographer: Amira Mortada/El Shorouk Newspaper/AP Photo

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A protester holds up a poster with the faces of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and current President Mohmmed Morsi, in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Photographer: Mostafa El Shemy/AP

The announcement triggered international apprehension that Mursi, an Islamist who already has executive and legislative control, was moving to consolidate power in much the same way his predecessor President Hosni Mubarak did to rule Egypt for 30 years. The U.S. yesterday said the moves “raise concerns” and urged Egypt to resolve tensions through democratic dialogue.
“This was the fear from the very beginning -- that you were going to be trading an autocrat for a theocrat,” David Schenker, director of the Arab politics program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said yesterday.
Offices of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, headed by Mursi before his election, were torched in the Islamic stronghold of Alexandria and other cities, Al Jazeera said. Protesters filled Tahrir Square and activists clashed with police near the Interior Ministry amid the most widespread protests since Mursi was elected Egypt’s first Islamist president in June.
Demonstrators chanted “the people want the regime down,” an echo of protests against Mubarak, and held banners that said “Mursi is the new Pharaoh” and “No to a new dictator.”
Their demands include the dismissal of Mursi’s Cabinet, an overhaul of the police and the prosecution of officers responsible for killing and injuring protesters last year. At least 56 Egyptians were injured yesterday in protests around the country, Middle East News Agency reported, citing health officials. Eight policemen were seriously injured by Molotov cocktails, MENA reported

U.S. Reaction

The U.S. called for calm in a statement released by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
“The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community,” she said. “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,” Nuland said.
Mursi’s move came after he was hailed by President Barack Obama and other leaders for his role in negotiating a truce between Hamas and Israel that ended eight days of air strikes and missile attacks. Aid from the U.S., and U.S. support for Egypt’s applications for loans from the International Monetary Fund and other organizations, is contingent on Egypt’s progress on democratic development.

Economic Matters

With preliminary agreement reached on Nov. 20 for a two- year, $4.8 billion IMF loan and praise from the international community about the Gaza truce, Mursi may be feeling he can take the risk.
“His hope is that the West needs him more than he needs the West,” Aaron David Miller, a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington policy group, said yesterday.
Financial support is crucial as Mursi is struggling to revive an economy battered by last year’s uprising, which caused tourists and investors to flee. Egypt’s benchmark stock index fell 3.9 percent this week, the biggest decline since June.
With one-third of the population 14 years old or younger, and youth unemployment at 24.8 percent for those ages 15 to 24, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Mursi must deliver jobs and economic reform.
Schenker said that the IMF loan requires cuts to certain subsidies, a large part of the Egyptian economy. Similar steps in Jordan have led to unrest.

Mursi’s Actions

“This guy was elected to change Egypt and the revolution was not about governance, it was about the economy,” Schenker said in a telephone interview. “Overall, the numbers are not good and it’s unclear how long Mursi has to improve this.”
Mursi on Nov. 22 ordered the retrial of Mubarak-era officials, fired the prosecutor-general and blocked legal challenges to the assembly writing a new constitution, which secular and Christian groups have said is dominated by Islamists.
At a rally near the presidential palace, Mursi said that his actions were aimed at achieving social and political stability, and that the moves were necessary to prevent Egypt’s transformation from being derailed by elements of the Mubarak regime. He acknowledged that not all the revolution’s goals have been achieved, echoing a complaint from youth activist groups.
The exemption from judicial review means that any decrees issued by Mursi since he took office and before a new constitution is adopted and parliament elected can’t be appealed or reversed. Elections are slated to be held after the constitution is finished and approved in a referendum.

‘New Pharaoh’

The government said in a statement that Mursi’s decrees don’t reflect an expansion of presidential powers, and were intended to safeguard the temporary constitution until a new one can be written, MENA reported. The statement was published after premier Hisham Qandil held a meeting with key ministers.
The president decreed that no judicial body can disband the 100-member assembly writing the constitution, and extended its mandate by two months. Ayman Nour, an opposition politician, told Al Jazeera television he was leaving the committee after the announcement.
The committee has faced legal challenges and has been criticized by secular groups that say it’s forcing through articles that curtail freedoms and don’t represent the country’s religious minorities.

Opposition Leaders

Mursi “usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh,” Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, a key player in last year’s uprising, said on his Twitter account. “A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences.”
The United Nations human rights commission said it’s “very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration for human rights and the rule of law,” according to a statement from the high commissioner’s office.
Opposition leaders including ElBaradei, former Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi issued a statement Nov. 22 calling for protests.
The moves mark the latest push by the Islamist president to wrest power away from a judiciary that the Brotherhood has argued is biased against him. The group supports Mursi’s decisions and anyone who objects to them is “selling the blood of the martyrs,” Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said, according to MENA.
The judiciary criticized the move. “It’s frightening,” Judge Yussuf Auf said by phone. “This decree is a disaster on many levels because it undermines judicial principles that have been in place for decades. This will lead to an intense clash between the judiciary and the presidency unlike any we’ve seen in the past.”