{"id":14355,"date":"2012-11-27T08:19:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T15:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14355"},"modified":"2012-11-27T08:19:37","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T15:19:37","slug":"tensions-mount-in-egypt-as-mursi-appoints-himself-as-supreme-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14355","title":{"rendered":"Tensions mount in Egypt as Mursi Appoints himself as Supreme Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thousands march to Tahrir as pressure piles on Morsi<\/strong><br \/>\n27 November, 2012 &#8211; Agence France Presse &#8211; The Daily Star<\/p>\n<p>CAIRO: Egypt&#8217;s President Mohammad Mursi faced nationwide protests Tuesday after digging in his heels over a controversial decree granting him sweeping powers, in the most divisive crisis since he took power in June.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of lawyers left their syndicate chanting, &#8220;The people want the downfall of the regime,&#8221; &#8212; the signature chant of the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year&#8211; as they made their way to Cairo&#8217;s iconic Tahrir Square.<\/p>\n<p>Several other marches were preparing to set off from around the capital to join thousands of protesters already in the square to denounce Mursi&#8217;s decree.<\/p>\n<p>In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, several hundred gathered in Qaitbay square, with two large marches expected to join them later.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Down with the rule of the Supreme Guide,&#8221; they chanted, in reference to the head of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, on whose ticket Mursi ran for office.<\/p>\n<p>A rival rally in Cairo by the Muslim Brotherhood in support of the president was called off to &#8220;avoid potential unrest&#8221; but that has done little to abate the division among supporters and foes of Mursi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Muslim Brotherhood stole the revolution&#8221; read one banner in Tahrir. Another said the president was &#8220;pushing the people to civil disobedience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Muslim Brotherhood are liars, read another.<\/p>\n<p>Sporadic clashes between police and protesting youths continued into the afternoon near Cairo&#8217;s Tahrir Square.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will stay in Tahrir until Mursi cancels his declaration,&#8221; protester Ahmed Fahmy, 34 told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>The planned demonstrations come a day after Mursi met with the country&#8217;s top judges in a bid to defuse the crisis over the decree, that has sparked deadly clashes and prompted judges and journalists to call for strike.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters are angry at the decree that Mursi announced last Thursday allowing him to &#8220;issue any decision or law that is final and not subject to appeal&#8221;, which effectively placed him beyond judicial oversight.<\/p>\n<p>The decree put him on a collision course with the judiciary and consolidated the long-divided opposition which accuses him of taking on dictatorial powers and raise fears that the Islamists will be further ensconced in power.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb\/News\/Middle-East\/2012\/Nov-27\/196264-clashes-in-cairo-as-morsi-faces-nationwide-protests.ashx#axzz2DQsbkadw\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D14355&amp;text=Tensions+mount+in+Egypt+as+Mursi+Appoints+himself+as+Supreme+Dictator&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands march to Tahrir as pressure piles on Morsi 27 November, 2012 &#8211; Agence France Presse &#8211; The Daily Star CAIRO: Egypt&#8217;s President Mohammad Mursi faced nationwide protests Tuesday after digging in his heels over a controversial decree granting him sweeping powers, in the most divisive crisis since he took power in June. Thousands of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14355#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[3742],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14357,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions\/14357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}