Posted on 12/09/2012 5:59:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has annulled a decree he issued last month granting him sweeping emergency powers, in a push to defuse political tensions and deadly violence gripping the country.
But a spokesman, speaking late Saturday in Cairo, said a referendum on a controversial draft constitution will still go forward as planned December 15.
There has been no formal opposition response to the decree annulment, and it was not immediately clear what impact it will have on opposition protesters who have camped out near the presidential palace since Tuesday.
The two issues -- the decree and the referendum -- are at the heart of anti-Morsi demonstrations that have rocked the country for much of the past two weeks.
An opposition umbrella of liberals, secularists and supporters of the former regime claim the draft constitution was pushed through by President Morsi's Islamist backers, without opposition participation. They have demanded the referendum be canceled and a new draft formulated with opposition input.
Opposition leaders also accuse the president of using the November 22 decree to create what they say is strong-arm rule reminiscent of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The decree and the draft constitution days later sparked violent protests in Cairo and elsewhere in the country.
The president said earlier this week that at least seven people had been killed and hundreds of others injured in the demonstrations.
The latest developments were announced after day-long meetings between key Islamist backers of the president and delegates from opposition groups. However, the main opposition alliance did not attend, prompting some analysts to predict the presidential decree annulment will have little practical effect in the standoff.
The Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Ahram quotes Islamic scholar Mohamed Selim El-Awa, who attended Saturday's meeting, as saying a new drafting panel will be formed and a new constitution written with six months, if voters reject the current draft at the December 15 polls.
Egypt's military encouraged both sides on Saturday to resolve political differences through dialogue. It was the military's first public pronouncements on the crisis since it erupted more than two weeks ago.
When you have thousands of murdering loonies out in the streets screaming for your head, you may want to listen up.
RE: you may want to listen up
Well, it’s a relief that he did not call out the army to massacre them Tien An Men style. But then again, who knows where the Egyotian army’s loyalty is?
Morsi jumped a little too quick.
He bcked off for now. He will be back when he grows a bit stronger for another shot at Dictatorship/.
The Koran doesn’t encourage ‘dialogue’:
Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution of Muslims is worse than slaughter of non-believers...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Sura (9:123) - "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness."
Sura (61:4) - "Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way"
The best foreign policy is when muslims are killing each other, let them keep at it. There is no hope for the followers of that cult of death.
Morsi = Obama. We are lucky that Obama is too busy golfing to sign the decree. OTOH Obama may have smarter aides that would delay the signing until a bit later in the glorious transformation of America.
I bet ubama was watching to see how it would play out and was fully in support of Morsi taking over, hoping to do the same soon. Well, the two of them got another think coming
I have sometimes wondered as I looked at the events playing out in the Mid East and countries in South America or Africa... and here it is...
Could a military coup d’etat possibly occur here in the USA?
Then I comfort myself by saying — we have 50 states, each with its own National Guard, militia, etc. It is extremely difficult for that to happen here (Thank the framers for that).
As long as we have some governors with backbone that is...the problem I see is this: newer federal legislation actually encourages states to feed out of the federal trough, defund their own programs and depend on Uncle Sam. If the states make that fatal error, the noose will tighten around the necks of the states. It all started with the highways, and the feds are trying to take over more and more. If the feds decide to cut off funding for the National Guard, states rights suffer a huge blow. States have got to fight to defend themselves from this insidious federal takeover
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