shortformblog:

haaretz:

Egyptians take to the streets to protest against President Mohammed Morsi

The protest spirit is alive and pulsing as ever in Egypt, where President Morsi’s recent decree granting himself inordinate power above and beyond the limits of the judiciary has sparked ferocious discontent.

Source: haaretz

shortformblog: A year after Hosni Mubarak’s fall, new round of protests in Egypt: Tear gas filled the streets and 15 were injured in protests after President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree yesterday greatly expanding his own power. The decree shields any of the president’s decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament is elected; protects the Islamist-dominated assembly, which is in the process of crafting a new constitution for the country, from being dissolved; and calls for retrials of Hosni Mubarak and other members of the old guard. 18 liberal and Christain members of the aforementioned assembly recently withdrew from the process, claiming that their input wasn’t being addressed; Morsi’s claims that his decree will only be in effect until the new constitution is drafted. Both pro- and anti-Morsi protesters clashed in Egyptian streets today, numbering in the thousands. source [1] [2] [3] (Photo credit: Reuters) After a theoretically democratic election, there should never been a time when the actions of the country’s leader are protected from legal challenge, regardless of the reason why. Not here, not in Egypt, and not anywhere else. It may be cliche to say, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. 
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shortformblog:

A year after Hosni Mubarak’s fall, new round of protests in Egypt: Tear gas filled the streets and 15 were injured in protests after President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree yesterday greatly expanding his own power. The decree shields any of the president’s decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament is elected; protects the Islamist-dominated assembly, which is in the process of crafting a new constitution for the country, from being dissolved; and calls for retrials of Hosni Mubarak and other members of the old guard. 18 liberal and Christain members of the aforementioned assembly recently withdrew from the process, claiming that their input wasn’t being addressed; Morsi’s claims that his decree will only be in effect until the new constitution is drafted. Both pro- and anti-Morsi protesters clashed in Egyptian streets today, numbering in the thousands. source [1] [2] [3] (Photo credit: Reuters)

After a theoretically democratic election, there should never been a time when the actions of the country’s leader are protected from legal challenge, regardless of the reason why. Not here, not in Egypt, and not anywhere else. It may be cliche to say, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. 

Egypt’s New President (Rebloggable by Request)

deadpresidents:

anonymous asked:  should we be worried that the new egyptian president is supported by the muslim brotherhood

Why?  Because it has the word “Muslim” in their title?

Egypt’s President-elect, Mohamed Morsi, spent quite a bit of his life in California.  He is a graduate of USC and CSU-Northridge.  Half of his kids are U.S. citizens who were born in California.  He’s, from what we are told, the democratically-elected President of Egypt.  If we’re going to call for the democratic process, we must respect the democratic process.

The Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda are two very different entities with very different purposes.  The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist group, but not a violent one.  They call for peaceful, democratic elections in all Islamic countries, which is not what al-Qaeda fights for.

President Morsi will struggle to control the levers of state. He will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions. Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around. This would be a mistake. His challenge is to lead a bitterly divided, fearful, and angry population toward a peaceful democratic outcome, without becoming a reviled scapegoat for continued military rule.
European Council on Foreign Relations Senior Policy Fellow Elijah Zarwan • Analyzing the challenges Mohamed Morsi will face in leading Egypt in the coming months and years. Morsi won the election on Sunday, with 52 percent of the vote. (via shortformblog)

(via shortformblog)

Egyptian military makes power grab as presidential election results disputed

shortformblog:

  • yeah … Last night, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi declared himself the winner of Egypt’s presidential election, based on the party’s own results. Former Egyptian PM Ahmed Shafiq is disputing the outcome (which was close), and official results will not come out until Thursday.
  • … but Late last night, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces granted itself authority over the parliament while a new one is elected, which effectively would keep military rulers in power. While protests have been light, the move has been strongly criticized in activist circles. source

» What the military can do: The military currently has a right, due to this resolution, to control the military without any civilian oversight, to introduce a new constitution, and to exercise full legislative authority — in other words, to pass laws at will. This is bad news, and some have called SCAF’s power grab tantamount to a coup. The group, however, says they’ll hand power over to the new president by the end of June, but will that promise hold?

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In Sunday's Egyptian presidential elections, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi has claimed victory over former PM Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi's campaign reports.

shortformblog:

Mohamed Morsi’s campaign claims victory, saying that the Muslim Brotherhood candidate has clinched 52.5 percent of the vote. In a press conference at their headquarters in Cairo, the campaign also announced that Shafiq got about 47 percent of the vote. Counting has been completed at slightly more than 97 percent of polling stations. After the announcement, a handful of Morsy supporters chanted, “The free revolutionaries will continue to victory!” and “Down with military rule!”

The vote has not been confirmed by outside sources, but is being widely reported at this time.

shortformblog:

thepoliticalnotebook:

Hosni Mubarak was found guilty of allowing the deaths of at least 800 protesters in the 18-day uprising that toppled his presidency in 2011. He was given a life sentence, which he will serve in Torah prison in southern Cairo. Given a life sentence alongside him was his former interior minister Habib el-Adly. The corruption charges leveled against his sons, Gamal and Alaa, were dropped.

The picture above was taken and tweeted by Al Jazeera’s @glcarlstrom, and is of parents outside the courthouse who have dropped to their knees crying over the portrait of their martyred son after hearing the news of the verdict.

[Al Jazeera] [@RichardEngelNBC] [AP] [@glcarlstrom]

A very evocative photograph, on a very emotional day for the people of Egypt.

Source: thepoliticalnotebook

Outer-Borough Wanderings

I had a very outer-boroughs night on Friday. Dinner at Brooklyn Mac in Greenpoint. Picture mozzarella and ricotta mac and cheese, chock full of spinach and tomatoes and topped with breadcrumbs. Mmmmmmmmmmm …

It might be better than S’Mac. No, no hedging needed, it’s better than S’Mac. Go eat there.

After a pit-stop in Union Square, http://vocaleyes.tumblr.com/ and a couple of our friends headed out the Astoria, Queens to celebrate the fact that Hosni Mubarak is no longer the president of Egypt. Viva la revolucion. Turns out we couldn’t find the party we were looking for, and just went to a hookah bar cafe instead. We ran into this delightful journalist/playwright who was very curious about our take. See, one of my delightful friends was recently evacuated from Egypt (she was doing an archaeology-based study abroad semester there). And if you read vocaleyes up there’s tumblr, you’ll see what she had to say. I won’t pretend I was particularly insightful.

I’m just wondering if any of it ended up in an article somewhere. If I ever find it, I’ll post it.