CAIRO -- The 200,000 people who filled Tahrir Square - birthplace of
the Egyptian revolution - represent the most serious challenge to the
rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Angry chants filled Tahrir Square
as people protested a recent decree issued by President Mohammed Morsi
granting him sweeping powers.
The protesters waved Egypt's
red-white-and-black flag and chanted slogans against Morsi and his
Muslim Brotherhood, which took power in Egypt's first elections since
the overthrow of dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The demonstrators
joined several hundred people who had been camping out in the square
since Friday demanding the decree be revoked.
"I'm against the
constitution and the dictatorship of Mr. Morsi," says Horeya Naguib,
whose first name in Arabic means freedom. "He is selling his own country
and looks out for the interests of his group, not the people of Egypt."
Naguib
said he had not been to the square to protest since the January 2011
revolution -- until Morsi announced the constitutional decree. That
decree placed Morsi above all oversight, including judicial review of
his decisions, until a new constitution is adopted and parliamentary
elections are held. That timeline stretches to mid-2013.
Morsi
said the decree was necessary to achieve steady governance as
counter-revolutionary forces create problems and judiciary members seek
to "harm the country."
"There are weevils eating away at the
nation of Egypt," Morsi said in front of a crowd on Friday, the day
after he announced his decree in a televised speech.
Protesters complained that the draft of the constitution will curtail freedoms.
"We won't have the right to talk. There will be no women's rights, children's rights," Naguib says.
Protesters
voiced their complaints through megaphones, drawing cheers when the
names of opposition leaders Hamdeen Sabahi, Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr
Hamzawy were shouted. Demonstrators ringed the square with barbed wire
and metal bars and on the southern perimeter of the square remnants of
tear gas from previous clashes lingered.
Vendors set up shop,
clumping chairs in sections of the square, as protesters hunkered down
for the evening. The square smelled of popcorn, roasted sweet potatoes
and warm seeds as hawkers carted goods through the crowd.
"The people want the fall of the regime!" protesters screamed beneath
a banner high over the square stating, "Egypt is for all Egyptians."
"I'm
here to say 'No' to Morsi's recent announcement," said Yasmin Tawfiq, a
consultant for a development organization. "It's unlawful - against all
laws in Egypt."
Tawfiq was also angered because she believes that Morsi has not yet made improvements for Egypt's people.
"We
don't see him doing anything that helps poor people - education,
health, you name it," she said. During Egypt's 2011 revolution,
protesters, too, demanded bread, freedom and social justice.
Morsi,
who rose through the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, has the same
mentality of "listen and obey" as Mubarak, said protester Hossam Amer, a
tour guide and Egyptologist. "Morsi with the Brotherhood and Mubarak
with the military," he said.
Protesters, as they did for Mubarak, called for their leader -- this time, Morsi -- to resign.
"This
is the beginning of him stepping down, and the people will never be
repressed," Amer said, marching with chanting and cheering crowds just
before sunset. The balance and separation of powers in Egypt has been
"utterly demolished," said a statement signed by 23 groups on the Cairo
Institute for Human Rights Studies website.
"(It) destroyed the
authoritative nature of court rulings and paved the way for state
institutions to refuse to implement court orders, which may well lead to
the spread of chaos in the country and the collapse of the idea of the
state based on institutions rather than individual leaders," the
statement said.
The opposition says the decrees give Morsi near
dictatorial powers by neutralizing the judiciary at a time when he
already holds executive and legislative powers. Leading judges have also
denounced the measures. The nation's Supreme Judicial Council called
the decrees an "unprecedented assault" on the judiciary's independence
and rulings.
Judges also threatened to strike, which could have
broader implications as Egypt seeks an International Monetary Fund loan
and tries to revive a struggling economy. Lawyers held a demonstration
march of their own.
The controversial move comes amid a
constitutional drafting process long embroiled in debate over issues
including the role of Islamic law, presidential powers and the rights of
minorities and women. Almost all secular members of the 100-member
constituent assembly have withdrawn, said Abou El-Ghar, whose party
members walked out of the committee.
The president's declaration
last week of new powers for himself has energized -- and to a degree
unified -- the mostly liberal and secular opposition after months of
divisions and uncertainty. Almost two dozen Egyptian rights groups
collectively called on Morsi over the weekend to rescind the decree.
Morsi
says the decrees are necessary to protect the "revolution" and the
nation's transition to democratic rule. His declaration made all his
decisions immune to judicial review and banned the courts from
dissolving the upper house of parliament and an assembly writing the new
constitution, both of which are dominated by Islamists.
The decree also gave Morsi sweeping authority to stop any "threats" to the revolution.
"What's
happening is that Dr. Morsi took a decision for a limited time until
the constitutional committee finished its work," said Dina Zakaria, a
representative of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). "We
find it's very important to settle down and make a step forward to
stability."
The FJP appealed "to everyone to maintain a peaceful
expression and national consensus" and "condemn and reject all forms of
violence, assault, arson and destruction of institutions."
Zakaria,
however, said that Morsi's decree is only intended to protect the
revolution and democratic institutions that risked being dissolved.
"We
believe that these decisions are important now because it's a very
important critical transitional period and we want to move forward," she
said.
Not so, says Salima El-Masry, carrying a bag of bananas on
her way to the square. What Egypt has done is "basically change a
one-man show -- the ex-regime -- to a new dictator," El-Masry says.
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