Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

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Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:16 am UTC

Spoiler:
CAIRO — Egypt’s military rulers moved to consolidate power Friday on the eve of the presidential runoff election, shutting down the Islamist-led Parliament, locking out lawmakers and seizing the sole right to issue laws even after a new head of state takes office.
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Protests as Egypt’s High Court Invalidates Parliament

Graphic: Key Events in the Egyptian Transition Imbroglio

Related

Revolt Leaders Cite Failure to Uproot Old Order in Egypt (June 15, 2012)
The Lede Blog: Egyptian Activists Debate How Not to Vote (June 15, 2012)
The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Electoral Turmoil in Egypt (June 14, 2012)
Egypt Reimposes Martial Law, Ahead of Closely Watched Ruling (June 14, 2012)
Times Topic: Egypt News — Presidential Elections, May-June 2012

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The generals effectively abandoned their previous pledge to cede power to a civilian government by the end of the month, prolonging the increasingly tortuous political transition after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak last year. The power play has also darkened the prospects that Egypt, the most populous Arab state and one that historically has had tremendous influence on the direction of the region, might quickly emerge as a model of democracy for the Middle East.

Their moves, predicated on a court ruling on Thursday and announced with little fanfare by the state news media, make it likely that whoever wins the presidential race will — at least at first — compete with the generals for power and influence. The military counsel also indicated through the official news media that it planned to issue a new interim constitution and potentially select its own panel to write a permanent charter. The generals have already sought permanent protections for their autonomy and political power.

The military’s power grab, which many critics have called a coup, presents a new obstacle to the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that is Egypt’s largest political force. After 84 years in the shadows of secular monarchs and military autocrats, the Brotherhood dominated last fall’s parliamentary elections; it began drawing up plans to revise the Constitution and government ministries, and appeared poised to claim the presidency as well.

Then on Thursday, the nation’s highest court issued an order dissolving Parliament, on the grounds that political parties had wrongly been allowed to compete for the one-third of seats designated for individual candidates.

Now, even if the Brotherhood’s presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, wins the runoff, his power may be circumscribed by a military-issued interim constitution as well as the generals’ hold on legislative power, at least until new parliamentary elections are held.

The outcome of the race, however, remains impossible to predict. Mr. Morsi’s opponent, Ahmed Shafik, a former air force general and Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, was long considered an inside candidate to succeed Mr. Mubarak under the old one-party autocracy. Mr. Shafik has campaigned as a strongman who can restore order and hold back the Islamists. Many observers say he has benefited from favorable coverage and editorials in the state news media as well as from statements and actions by sitting public officials warning against the Islamists.

In response to the ruling on Parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood sought to portray the presidential runoff as the last stand of the revolution.

“Here comes the counterrevolution, plainly witnessed by all, so everyone knows that we are facing a defining moment and a critical turning point,” Mr. Morsi said Friday in a statement that was echoed by surrogates for his campaign. “We are now facing a heinous coup,” he added, calling it “the last card of counterrevolutionary players.”

Eschewing protests, Mr. Morsi urged supporters to join a “million-man march to the ballot boxes, because then the forces of darkness will not dare falsify your will.”

Brotherhood officials insisted that Parliament was still in business despite the soldiers guarding the doors. They continued to argue that the Supreme Constitutional Court had no authority to dissolve Parliament, citing precedents in which the previous Parliament had rebuffed such judicial interventions. They discounted the reports in the state news media that the military council had assumed legislative authority, and also wrote off the soldiers and the riot police officers barring entrance to Parliament. “It is nothing more than a show of force,” said Jihad al-Haddad, an adviser to the Brotherhood’s chief strategist, Khairat el-Shater. “The Parliament is still intact.”
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Graffiti in Tahrir Square on Thursday showing former President Hosni Mubarak (R), military ruler Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi (2nd R), and former foreign minister Amr Mussa (2nd L). More Photos »
Multimedia
Photographs
Protests as Egypt’s High Court Invalidates Parliament

Graphic: Key Events in the Egyptian Transition Imbroglio

Related

Revolt Leaders Cite Failure to Uproot Old Order in Egypt (June 15, 2012)
The Lede Blog: Egyptian Activists Debate How Not to Vote (June 15, 2012)
The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Electoral Turmoil in Egypt (June 14, 2012)
Egypt Reimposes Martial Law, Ahead of Closely Watched Ruling (June 14, 2012)
Times Topic: Egypt News — Presidential Elections, May-June 2012

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“We don’t know anything yet because this was a political decision and not a legal decision,” Mr. Haddad added, noting that Egypt remained under the convoluted authority of a hodgepodge of military declarations and pre-existing rules.

The impending presidential vote appeared to divert energy from protests, and a march to Tahrir Square drew a relatively small crowd of a few hundred.

Officials in Washington also raised concerns. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in a statement that he had called Egypt’s top military officer and de facto head of state, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and “highlighted the need to move forward expeditiously with Egypt’s political transition, including conducting new legislative elections as soon as possible.”

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, an influential Democrat, threatened to seek to withhold American aid to Egypt. The dissolution of Parliament “obviously throws into question the future of the transition,” he said in a statement. “I would not want to see the U.S. government write checks for contracts with Egypt’s military under the present uncertain circumstances.”

The results of the first round of the presidential election appear to make Mr. Morsi the favorite. He and other Islamist candidates combined won nearly half the vote, while Mr. Shafik and the other former Mubarak government official in the race, Amr Moussa, won only about a third. Mr. Morsi needs to peel off only a sliver of the votes given to other more secular candidates critical of the Mubarak government in order to win.

“By the numbers, Morsi should win, if the vote is free and fair,” said Samer S. Shehata, an Egyptian-American political scientist at Georgetown University.

Some outside the Brotherhood blamed its conservative leadership — mainly represented by its lead strategist, Mr. Shater — as having provoked the crackdown by moving too fast to take power rather than working in concert with others. Former members said the efforts by the Mubarak-appointed judges and generals to block the group’s electoral successes would only strengthen the hand of its conservative leaders.

“The leadership convinces itself and the members of a feeling of persecution — that the group is being tracked and hunted and restricted even when it has part of the power — and this feeling has always been used as an excuse,” said Mohamed Habib, a former deputy chairman of the Brotherhood. The attacks by government officials, liberals and the media enhance “the feeling of persecution,” he said, and weaken the argument that the group should open up.

Mr. Haddad, the adviser to Mr. Shater, said the Brotherhood always expected a long struggle to wrest power from the military and business elite. “It is not easy to uproot the military’s grip on the state,” he said. “We are planning for a 7- or 10-year process.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/world/middleeast/blow-to-transition-as-court-dissolves-egypts-parliament.html?ref=world
After a court, staffed by Mubarak supporters, declared the parliamentary elections invalid, the military has seized the right to legislate. At first, it was shocking, but they left open a fleeting hope of having new elections next year. Now even that illusion of democracy is shattered. All that is left is the presidential elections. I wonder what's going to happen now?
Excuse the bad copypasta, there was not a good print form for me to copy.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby lutzj » Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:33 pm UTC

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 90400.html

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi takes the presidential runoff with just over 50% of the vote. 800,000 votes invalidated, which is almost as big as the gap between the two candidates, so there might be some controversy over the result.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Tirian » Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:43 pm UTC

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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Diadem » Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:17 pm UTC

lutzj wrote:http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/201262412445190400.html

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi takes the presidential runoff with just over 50% of the vote. 800,000 votes invalidated, which is almost as big as the gap between the two candidates, so there might be some controversy over the result.

The good news is that it appears the military did not seize power.
The bad news is that it appears the military did not seize power.

I really do not know what to think of the whole situation.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:33 pm UTC

Just because they don't share our undying loyalties to Israelis doesn't mean they are our nemesis of the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood isn't Iran, or even Hamas. Asking authoritative strongmen to take over because of some minor policy differences isn't something to be desired. Besides, the military has already seized power. The presidency is reduced in scope, the military has a say over legislative matters, they operate by a constitution that the military alone wrote, and they dissolved parliament under some suspicious legal reasoning.

If you're not sure what to think, consider the following. Egypt provides a couple things to the outside world: Access to the canal, not attacking Israel. Now what is at risk here? The not attacking Israel turns into, we'll loosen border restrictions to pressure Israel since that's fuels the Palestinians in Israel.
Now if Egypt goes military dictatorship, we maintain both of these options, and lose democratic values. If Egypt becomes an Islamic state through repeated Muslim brotherhood victories, then you could lose both the defense of Israel, and access to the canal. However, you gain democratic values. The former is the short term, the latter is a worst case scenario in the long term. If you think about what the US has done in the past, it has always chosen the authoritarian strongmen short term vision, over the democratic long term one. Has it worked out for us? I would say no, but we still do it. I'm not sure right now, but I think the US sided with the brotherhood on this, while hedging with the military. Who knows, but I hope it works better than how Bahrain is doing. Hint, they're blaming us for the oppression and killings now.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Steax » Mon Jun 25, 2012 12:28 am UTC

Genuine question: Why is everyone convinced that a Muslim Brotherhood win will turn Egypt into an "Islamic State" and an enemy of all who trample upon their path? I've been reading up on it, and while they're conservative, they're not openly radical. There have been the usual "allegations" and various cases in the past, though I don't usually think this is enough to be suspicious of a multi-million people group.

And how does the leap from "Islamic State" to Israel issues and other forms of closure to the world work? There are a number of existing ones, and they're not all hostile. And then there are a slew of non-purist Islamic states, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, which seem to be doing just fine.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby lutzj » Mon Jun 25, 2012 12:42 am UTC

They've also, y'know, been democratically raised to the presidency in the first decently-fair election Egypt's had in a while. We (the US, and more broadly the rest of the world) don't have to keep giving Egypt billions of dollars in aid if their interests don't align so closely with ours anymore, but actively opposing a Brotherhood government is just all kinds of wrong.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:30 am UTC

Steax wrote:Genuine question: Why is everyone convinced that a Muslim Brotherhood win will turn Egypt into an "Islamic State" and an enemy of all who trample upon their path? I've been reading up on it, and while they're conservative, they're not openly radical. There have been the usual "allegations" and various cases in the past, though I don't usually think this is enough to be suspicious of a multi-million people group.

And how does the leap from "Islamic State" to Israel issues and other forms of closure to the world work? There are a number of existing ones, and they're not all hostile. And then there are a slew of non-purist Islamic states, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, which seem to be doing just fine.

I hate to use this analogy, but it's similar to the fears republicans have of Obama secretly wanting to turn the country into a socialist europe. Except it has some basis behind it. Libya and Tunisa both have Salafi conservative muslims who are pressing hard for conservative changes to society and government which borders on oppressing nonmuslims and females. There were cases of in Africa of muslim opposition parties winning office, and then promptly converting over into a taliban style state. Considering the large majorities the muslim brotherhood has, it could easily pass something along the lines of "women can't vote/go to school/one must dress and behave as a conservative muslim. That's just how people who live there feel. As for the West, we only give a shit about conservative muslims is if it affects how they deal with Israel or oil. Egypt is a major transit point, and has a long border protecting Israel. (We clearly don't care about radical conservative muslims because Saudi Arabia is the most radical of the bunch, yet we support them clearly)


lutzj wrote:They've also, y'know, been democratically raised to the presidency in the first decently-fair election Egypt's had in a while. We (the US, and more broadly the rest of the world) don't have to keep giving Egypt billions of dollars in aid if their interests don't align so closely with ours anymore, but actively opposing a Brotherhood government is just all kinds of wrong.

I doubt the US would just give up on its contacts in the military just to save a 1-2 billion dollars a year, aka pennies to the US. I'm not sure what you are saying, the Obama administration has sided with democratic groups and the brotherhood in this case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/world ... &ref=world
It's using the billion dollars in aid as pressure on Egypt to maintain a stable and democratic transition of power.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby lutzj » Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:33 am UTC

sardia wrote:
lutzj wrote:They've also, y'know, been democratically raised to the presidency in the first decently-fair election Egypt's had in a while. We (the US, and more broadly the rest of the world) don't have to keep giving Egypt billions of dollars in aid if their interests don't align so closely with ours anymore, but actively opposing a Brotherhood government is just all kinds of wrong.

I doubt the US would just give up on its contacts in the military just to save a 1-2 billion dollars a year, aka pennies to the US. I'm not sure what you are saying, the Obama administration has sided with democratic groups and the brotherhood in this case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/world ... &ref=world
It's using the billion dollars in aid as pressure on Egypt to maintain a stable and democratic transition of power.


Yeah, maintaining the aid is probably a good move. Using it, or other leverage, to subvert the democratic process would be a bad one.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Lucrece » Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:14 am UTC

sardia wrote:
Steax wrote:Genuine question: Why is everyone convinced that a Muslim Brotherhood win will turn Egypt into an "Islamic State" and an enemy of all who trample upon their path? I've been reading up on it, and while they're conservative, they're not openly radical. There have been the usual "allegations" and various cases in the past, though I don't usually think this is enough to be suspicious of a multi-million people group.

And how does the leap from "Islamic State" to Israel issues and other forms of closure to the world work? There are a number of existing ones, and they're not all hostile. And then there are a slew of non-purist Islamic states, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, which seem to be doing just fine.

I hate to use this analogy, but it's similar to the fears republicans have of Obama secretly wanting to turn the country into a socialist europe. Except it has some basis behind it. Libya and Tunisa both have Salafi conservative muslims who are pressing hard for conservative changes to society and government which borders on oppressing nonmuslims and females. There were cases of in Africa of muslim opposition parties winning office, and then promptly converting over into a taliban style state. Considering the large majorities the muslim brotherhood has, it could easily pass something along the lines of "women can't vote/go to school/one must dress and behave as a conservative muslim. That's just how people who live there feel. As for the West, we only give a shit about conservative muslims is if it affects how they deal with Israel or oil. Egypt is a major transit point, and has a long border protecting Israel. (We clearly don't care about radical conservative muslims because Saudi Arabia is the most radical of the bunch, yet we support them clearly)



And lashings/life/death sentences for gay people, assuming they don't get lynched by the populace. National Geographic had a program covering a UK nurse who traveled to Saudi Arabia, was identified as a homosexual, and went through all the circles of Hell and was only saved for being a foreigner.

Conservative Islam is a tad worse than conservative Christianity, but the problem is that conservative Islam can actually achieve vast amount of political power whereas conservative Christianity in most countries can at best hold a split. Admittedly Africa is one of the exceptions where their Christians are just as bad socially as the Muslims. Eastern Europe is a bit less bad, but still pretty evil in addition to serious race problems and neonazi movements.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby iamspen » Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:19 am UTC

It's worth noting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has taken a huge leap leftward, at least in rhetoric (its actual practices remain to be seen), since the protests against Mubarak began. It has promised, for whatever that's worth, not to curtail rights for Christians or women, and, IMO, that's a significant paradigm shift for a conservative Muslim party such as the Brotherhood.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby webzter_again » Mon Jun 25, 2012 1:48 pm UTC

Two things worth throwing in here. First, Morsy is at least talking a great game right now. Tempered speech is, I think, a great sign. This does contrast very much with his message, at times, during his campaign, but it's not like we're not used to that from our presidential candidates in the US.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/mo ... -egyptians

In his first televised speech on state TV, Morsy declared he would be a leader "of all Egyptians — Muslims, Christians, the elderly, children, women, men, farmers, teachers, workers, those who work in the private and public sectors, and merchants."


Second, Morsy is no longer a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Obviously, his membership ending doesn't mean much. He likely still shares common ideals with the organization. Still, even if it's a political move and nothing else, it's a smart political move that might help speed the reconciliation of the country.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/br ... up-and-fjp

“We have terminated Morsy’s membership in fulfillment of our promise when he becomes president of all Egyptians,” said Mahmoud Hussein, the group's secretary general.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby CorruptUser » Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:35 pm UTC

iamspen wrote:It's worth noting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has taken a huge leap leftward, at least in rhetoric (its actual practices remain to be seen), since the protests against Mubarak began. It has promised, for whatever that's worth, not to curtail rights for Christians or women, and, IMO, that's a significant paradigm shift for a conservative Muslim party such as the Brotherhood.


Would just like to point out that according to my Iranian refugee friends, when the Ayatollah took over, he enforced religious worship for Jews/Christians as well as Muslims. Conservative Islam doesn't ban the 'Dhimmi' religions/people, just subjugates them.

Saudi Arabia is something else, being a bit more fascist than even Iran, what with the "no churches" rules. I could sort of understand Mecca and Medina, but the rest of Saudi Arabia isn't 'holy'.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby iamspen » Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:48 pm UTC

The biggest difference between Iran and Egypt, of course, is that Iran is an Islamic republic whose democratic system is made of paper and is, in fact, an oppressive dictatorship (which, in one of history's most ironic twists, is actually quite accepting of people of other faiths in relation to its neighbors, even allocating Parliamentary seats to religious minorities) while Egypt is evidently and hopefully headed in the direction of actual representative democracy. In Egypt's case, the current dictatorial power is the secular military, and the incoming President has promised de facto secularism. Though I'm skeptical of his ability to meet that promise, and I'm skeptical of the Brotherhood's apparent newfound progressiv(ish)ism, I'll wait until they actually make a grab for oppressive Islamism before comparing them to their Iranian counterparts.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby CorruptUser » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:22 pm UTC

...my point being that conservative Islam doesn't always ban all other religions, so that MB's promise to not curtail minority rights isn't proof in either direction that the MB is going "left".
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby iamspen » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:42 pm UTC

I know what your point was, but my point is that and their promises to follow the legal rulings that are handed down from the secular courts, and the Brotherhood distancing itself from the executive office so as not the deligitimize itself in the eyes of minority religious/political groups (they initially didn't even know if they wanted to posit a candidate for fear of alienating the fledgeling revolution, remember), and its vows to protect and uphold the rights of religious minorities and keep in place certain secularist principles all point to a leftward movement.

And my other point was that, so far, all of that has been rhetorical, and I'm skeptical of their intentions because, yes, this is still a far-right traditionally Islamist political party, so their actions in the immediate future may be entirely contrary to their stated positions.

I guess I'm not really in a position to argue with you, because I really don't want to defend the Brotherhood any more than is absolutely necessary, but from a layman's point of view, they've added a tinge of progressivism in their platform that is slightly encouraging, especially since the knee-jerk reaction pretty much globally was, "Fuck, we're going to have another radical Islamist regime hell-bent on destroying the West."
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby yedidyak » Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:06 pm UTC

Only time will tell what Morsi will do as President. In the short term I doubt he will make massive changes, especially as the army is still in de-facto control. Its also important to note that despite the huge crowds in Tahrir he only scraped a win with 51%. And that was against a Mubarak PM, he has serious opposition from the secular public.

On the other hand, hes working with a massively Islamist Parliament. (Assuming the parliament is reinstated). The MB led Democratic Alliance for Egypt has 235 out of 508, but another 123 seats are held by the Salafis. Together they can pass any Islamic law they want, and with the Salafis holding the balance between a minority and massive majority, they will almost certainly be a large part of Morsi's government.

Anyway, its too soon to see how much if any power Morsi will end up with. But, living in a country that had 150 rockets fired at us this week by the MB's sister party, it's worrying.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby webzter_again » Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:09 pm UTC

yedidyak wrote:Anyway, its too soon to see how much if any power Morsi will end up with. But, living in a country that had 150 rockets fired at us this week by the MB's sister party, it's worrying.


So what's the general mood in Israel over the elections? His current stance certainly feels softer than his campaign rhetoric. Or, does the parliament make-up sort of make the presidential election a moot point?
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby yedidyak » Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:40 pm UTC

webzter_again wrote:
yedidyak wrote:Anyway, its too soon to see how much if any power Morsi will end up with. But, living in a country that had 150 rockets fired at us this week by the MB's sister party, it's worrying.


So what's the general mood in Israel over the elections? His current stance certainly feels softer than his campaign rhetoric. Or, does the parliament make-up sort of make the presidential election a moot point?


People are waiting to see what happens. No one expects things to get better, the question is how bad will things get. Although, many people think that the army is still in real control and so nothing will change.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:59 pm UTC

As for Israel, look for news on gas pipelines into Israel, Smuggling/trade with the Palestinians, and a renegotiation of the peace treaty. Egypt has leverage over Israel on these issues due to the border, but Israel has the US leaning on Egypt's military to play nice. It'll be delicate to say the least when Egypt looks outward again.
I've heard reports that there was a disruption to the supply of natural gas from Egypt to Israel, did anything come of it? Or did they fix it?
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Lucrece » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:08 am UTC

Finally, concerning the highly controversial notion of sexual orientation, we can only reiterate that it is not part of the universally recognized human rights. We call on Mr. Kiai not to undermine the credibility and legitimacy of his important work in the eyes of real people who actually need it, especially in regions where such concepts are rejected by both its Christian and Muslim inhabitants like the Middle East."

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1ysuJhcOL


http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... -real.html

"Real people". What a long road still left to tread.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby jules.LT » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:45 am UTC

Not that his actual stance isn't problematic, but that was just bad English. He obviously meant "people who really need assistance", not "real people who need assistance".

Also, the thread title should be changed to "Muslim Brotherhood candidate elected president of Egypt", or something like that.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby yedidyak » Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:33 am UTC

sardia wrote:As for Israel, look for news on gas pipelines into Israel, Smuggling/trade with the Palestinians, and a renegotiation of the peace treaty. Egypt has leverage over Israel on these issues due to the border, but Israel has the US leaning on Egypt's military to play nice. It'll be delicate to say the least when Egypt looks outward again.
I've heard reports that there was a disruption to the supply of natural gas from Egypt to Israel, did anything come of it? Or did they fix it?


The pipeline has been blown up I think 14 times, maybe more since the revolution. Sometimes by Islamists, sometimes by local Bedouin tribes angry at government neglect. Sometimes those overlap. In many ways Egypt has lost control of the Sinai to Bedouin groups, just last week an Al-Qaeda linked group infiltrated Israel from there. Other groups have fired rockets from the Sinai multiple times. Egypt has moved a few infantry battalions to try and retake control, a move that Israel allowed despite it being against the peace treaty.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Djehutynakht » Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:13 am UTC

Steax wrote:And how does the leap from "Islamic State" to Israel issues and other forms of closure to the world work? There are a number of existing ones, and they're not all hostile. And then there are a slew of non-purist Islamic states, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, which seem to be doing just fine.



Saudi Arabia bans Archaeology and beheads people for being witches. I don't quite call that doing "just fine". I mean, the king is considerably open to reform, and the new man to be named crown prince is much more reformist than the conservative crown prince who just died, but they still have a long way to go.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Qaanol » Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:55 am UTC

Well, I don’t know how much this is important versus purely symbolic, but apparently President Morsi is going to appoint, among his Vice Presidents, a woman as one and a Christian as another.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:09 pm UTC

Egypt's military is still fighting to keep control of the state. I wonder if they'll win or not. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/world ... ?ref=world
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby BlackSails » Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:02 pm UTC

Is it just me, or do other people think of magneto whenever they hear someone mention the "Muslim Brotherhood"?
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Yakk » Tue Jul 10, 2012 9:52 pm UTC

Does anyone have a good source for more information on this:
Then on Thursday, the nation’s highest court issued an order dissolving Parliament, on the grounds that political parties had wrongly been allowed to compete for the one-third of seats designated for individual candidates.
I see lots of realpolitik style discussion, but little on the actual issue that (nominally) caused Parliament to dissolve.
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision - BR

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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby yedidyak » Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:10 am UTC

Two links from AJ, from before and after the ruling.

It seems there were two issues. First that 1/3 of the seats were meant to be allocated to independents, and 2/3 to party lists. The SC ruled that that was unfair to independents, and so annulled the entire election, and next time it must be half and half. Apparently the SC made two similar rulings in the Mubarak era. The second issue is that even in the independent's 1/3, parties campaigned and won seats. So MB members running for the MB ran for and won independent seats, which the SC said was unconstitutional.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby iamspen » Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:08 pm UTC

I had heard on NPR that inconsistent election rules between voting districts (eg, this district employs first past the post, this district uses a runoff system, that district uses a ranked voting system) also played a part in the SC's ruling, though I have not seen anything since to further corroborate this.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby yedidyak » Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:17 pm UTC

So, President Morsi has now fired and replaced nearly all the Army leadership, including Field Marshal Tantawi. He has also rolled back all of the constitutional changes the Army instituted to limit the power of the President, and taken back all legislative powers the Army had confiscated. Does this mean that the revolution is over and that Egypt is a real democracy?
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Tirian » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:23 am UTC

Wow. If the military submits to that order (and Bloomberg thinks that maybe they have), that seems very significant.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Sizik » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:51 am UTC

yedidyak wrote:Does this mean that the revolution is over and that Egypt is a real democracy?


I'd hold off on that until the next president gets elected.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:08 pm UTC

Sizik wrote:
yedidyak wrote:Does this mean that the revolution is over and that Egypt is a real democracy?


I'd hold off on that until the next president gets elected.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11 ... ?ref=world
Nope.
The king is dead. Love live the king.

In all seriousness, this declaration is pretty dangerous, especially if the judiciary isn't trusted by the people. If the president starts decreeing shit, and also decrees that his decrees aren't bounded by judicial review by the authority of his own decrees...
It might actually work in his favor if the Judiciary appears in the eyes of the people to be Mubarak supporters. If the judges don't have the public's backing, Morsi just seized power from the judiciary (right after the Judiciary transferred power from the legislative to the executive by dissolving parliament's election results.) Right now, Morsi has the powers to make laws, decree shit, and is immune to judicial review. He'll definitely abuse it, I'm just wondering if the backlash will come now, later or Egypt will just have to live with a Chavez-style presidency with a rubberstamp checks and balances. This is bad even if Morsi has the best of intentions since it sets the precedent that the president has all the powers.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:20 pm UTC

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/201 ... ?ref=world
A pattern emerges when a long smothered opposition party finally gains power. Examples are South Africa, Bolivia, and Egypt. The opposition, which is now in charge, is fearful and paranoid. As a result, they refuse to share power. Because there's no other game in town, everyone joins the main party(the old opposition) and smaller parties shrivel. And now the old opposition becomes what they hated, the man holding back the little guy.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby Qaanol » Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:00 pm UTC

Early reports indicate the constitution was approved by the people, although the opposition alleges fraud.

I started reading the English translation of the proposed constitution. It starts out pretty heavy-hitting with Islam being built into the government and only Islam, Judaism, and Christianity recognized, but later it covers things like equality and non-discrimination and human rights. I did not finish reading the whole thing yet.
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Re: Egypt's Military Changes Mind, Seizes Power Again

Postby sardia » Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:29 pm UTC

I expect something similar to the US constitution early days, but w/o the bill of rights. It'll be interpreted however they wish by the various factions, and whoever has the majority(islamists) will get what they want. So if the Islamists see a conservative society, they'll push for that, and find plenty of citations to back them up. Same for the "liberal" opposition, albeit with less backing since rights aren't as thoroughly protected or outright stated. Don't expect too much from the Obama administration, since it has to keep Israel safe in addition to the human rights in Egypt. So don't expect it to burn bridges or apply too much pressure on Morsi and the brotherhood. It'll try to keep a balance for now, unless the situation spirals out of control. TLDR: Wait and see mode until something big goes wrong.
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