The 200,000 Egyptians who went to Tahrir Square to show support for President Morsi’s power grab not only purchased the rope with which he will hang them, they put the noose around their own necks.
At least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo on Saturday in support of President Mohamed Mursi, who is rushing through a constitution to try to defuse opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.
“The people want the implementation of God’s law,” chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bused in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.
The numbers swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous Cairo rallies. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.
Mursi was expected later in the day to set a date for a referendum on the constitution hastily approved by an Islamist-dominated drafting assembly on Friday after a 19-hour session.
“We will certainly present the constitution to the president tonight,” Mohamed al-Beltagy, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and a member of the constituent assembly, told Reuters.
Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt’s democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.
His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt’s 83 million people.
Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.
Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. “The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.
Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.
Ideological fanaticism combined with religious fervor is a potent political combination that Morsi is exploiting to the fullest. His supporters will run interference for him until it is too late to stop the imposition of the sharia-friendly constitution. At that point, Morsi may indeed, drop his more extreme edicts about being above judicial review. But in a year or two, it won’t matter. He will have a compliant judiciary, fully in tune with his Islamist policies and sympathies.
If it wasn’t such a dangerous regime to peace in the region, we might be tempted to tell them to go hang themselves. But Egypt is the largest Arab country and a key to any scenario that envisions maintaining the peace. Morsi — for good or ill — is someone we will have to deal with for the foreseeable future.
This was not Tahrir but near Cairo University to prevent clashes. I admit I was surprised by the crowd size.
I am uncertain of the figure mentioned but it was a large show of support. Yesterday there was a large crowd in Tahrir that was an anti-Morsi demonstration – maybe 75,000. The anti-Morsi demonstration on Tues. in Tahrir may have been larger – 100,000.
The pro-Morsi demonstration almost certainly bused in people as they always have to do to make a crowd. Still it was an impressive show of support for Morsi, who may have dodged a bullet. We’ll see how the anti-Morsi crowd reacts. They are not bused in but native Cairenes.
Stop sending them money, arms or food now.
I think I’ve seen this movie before. It was on the history channel but I don’t remember how it turned out. Can’t remember the name, and can’t find anything on it at imdb.com.
But what will they eat?
The Sandmonkey says different, via Twitter: http://twitter.com/sandmonkey
السيد مانكي
@Sandmonkey
I do not share ur sense of hysteria, people. The islamist protest is much less than I expected. This is ALL the Organized islamists in egypt
Mohamed Samir @MSamir34
@Sandmonkey that’s what i thought , all what we see are gathered by orders all over egypt, their real numbers
السيد مانكي @Sandmonkey
Guys, @lilianwagdy was just at the demo. She says the following: 1) the space is apporx fit for 50.000 people
@Sandmonkey
Cntd. 2) the protest is all families, they brought their wives and kids. They won’t attack anyone. 3) very few ikhwan, mostly salafis.
السيد مانكي @Sandmonkey
Cntd.3) That this is truly everyone they had. They mobilized everything. See how few they are. Giza cud alone take them out if they wanted.
السيد مانكي @Sandmonkey
I sigh at a much lower nationwide mobilization. I sigh at them giving out bags & phone cards to get people. They are showing everything now.
@Sandmonkey
But here is today’s lesson. They are using all the tricks, no matter how low, to win this fight. They are fighting for survival, are you?
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Dunno if there is a timing issue, here, but they’re definitely talking about the demonstrators supporting Morsi.
Lovely. Government by the mob that shows up. Once upon a time, I was on a ‘march’ in downtown Toronto. There were some 3,000 people in the crowd. A Trotskyite was thrilled, as she thought this portended a ‘revolution’ and next, they could take down the banks.
How many people live in Egypt, again?
These ignorant islamists aren’t much different from the typical Obamavoter. Both groups fanatically long for something that promises heaven on earth, not in the least bit aware that what they want now will only bring enslavement, fear, tragedy and material and spiritual poverty when it comes to completeness.
What is different now than at any time in the history of the world is that we do have a “one world” of sorts. All continents are settled, there is simply no place left to start over again. Additionally modern technology makes enslavement nearly complete.