[h=3]By CHARLES LEVINSON And MATT BRADLEY[/h]
Demonstrations outside the Egyptian Presidential Palace in Cairo turned violent as Islamist demonstrators supporting president Mohammed Morsi clashed with secular protesters who oppose him. Video by WSJ's Matt Bradley via #WorldStream.
Supporters of the rival camps swarmed to the palace as night fell, waging back-and-forth battles in side streets outside the palace walls, shutting down major thoroughfares.
Egyptian medics said more than 120 people were wounded in the clashes. The Muslim Brotherhood said at least one of its supporters had been killed while opposition officials said two of their supporters had died. Violence flared elsewhere in Egypt as well. In the Suez Canal town of Ismailiya, protesters burned down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The clashes marked a fearsome escalation in Egypt's postrevolution power struggle, and echoed a decadeslong struggle throughout the Middle East between Islamists and their opponents that has been responsible for some of the region's bloodiest civil wars.
Mohammed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, appeared to suggest that Egypt could be headed for a similar fate, issuing a grim warning that Mr. Morsi was dragging Egypt into "violence and could draw us to something worse."
The conflict kicked off last month after Mr. Morsi issued a decree that granted the president nearly unrestricted powers and paved the way for hurried approval of a constitution the opposition feels is too weighted with Islamic law. The government has set a referendum on the controversial draft for Dec. 15.
As violence spread Wednesday, leaders on both sides dug in their heels, issuing steadily more defiant public statements.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Eryan, speaking on Al-Jazeera, called on millions of Egyptians to go to the palace to "defend the state and its legitimacy." In a jab at Mr. ElBaradei, known internationally for his work as a former United Nations nuclear agency chief, Mr. El-Eryan said: "Where does he get his legitimacy? The European Union? He has no legitimacy."
Mr. ElBaradei said Mr. Morsi bore "full responsibility" for the violence and had "lost all legitimacy." Speaking in a televised press conference, he was flanked by Egypt's top opposition leaders, including ex-Arab League chief Amr Moussa and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.
It was a rare show of unity by Egypt's historically fractured opposition forces, and an indication of how far Mr. Morsi's decree had gone toward galvanizing an opposition that had remained largely quiescent through the early months of Mr. Morsi's presidency.
"We will not enter any dialogue until the constitutional decree is rescinded and the constitutional referendum is postponed," said Mr. ElBaradei. He said they would pursue "any means necessary" to restore democracy and dignity to Egypt.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Gehad al-Haddad, accused Mr. ElBaradei and other opposition leaders of inciting violence. He refused to rule out the possibility that Mr. Morsi could order their arrest on those grounds.
On Tuesday, Egypt's public prosecutor, who was appointed by Mr. Morsi, ordered an investigation into allegations by a private citizen that Messrs. ElBaradei, Sabahy and Moussa, among other opposition leaders, were conspiring with Zionists to overthrow Mr. Morsi's government.
Mr. Morsi hasn't appeared in public since Wednesday's clashes began. His administration has sent out confused messages. His vice president, Mahmoud Mekki, in remarks to reporters Wednesday offered to sit down and negotiate with the opposition. He later said the proposal was his own, not a formal government offer. He said the referendum on the constitution would go forward as planned.
As the crisis deepened Wednesday, three of Mr. Morsi's aides, tapped from outside the Muslim Brotherhood, quit in protest. "Egypt is bigger than a narrow-minded elite," one of the aides, Seif Abdel Fattah, told Egyptian television. He added that he could "no longer stay silent because the Muslim Brotherhood had harmed the nation and the revolution."
The aides who stepped down were popular among many of the young revolutionaries who led the early 2011 uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak. They were tapped in part to fulfill one of Mr. Morsi's campaign pledges to recruit a broad and inclusive advisory team.
Mr. Morsi won Egypt's first democratic presidential elections in a runoff election this summer with a narrow 51% of the popular vote, defeating a controversial Mubarak loyalist. Many Egyptians who long opposed the Brotherhood put aside their misgivings to support Mr. Morsi. It was an early flicker of hope that the historic rift between Islamists and non-Islamists in Egypt had started to shrink.
Mr. Morsi managed his first months in office deftly. He pushed out the country's two most powerful generals with ease and broad support. Last month, he led aggressive diplomatic efforts to bring about a cease-fire to fighting in Gaza, which included aggressive back-and-forth diplomacy between Turkey, Qatar, Hamas and Washington. It won him praise in Egypt and the West as an able statesman.
One day after securing that cease-fire, Mr. Morsi issued his controversial decree. It was an unprecedented expansion of presidential powers, placing Mr. Morsi above judicial oversight, and plunging his administration into its worst crisis yet. Egyptians took to the streets in some of the largest protests since Mr. Mubarak's fall.
Mr. Morsi pressed ahead, ordering the Constituent Assembly, the body charged with drafting the country's new constitution, to rush completion of the draft. Liberal, secular, Christian and non-Islamist members of the assembly had withdrawn in protest against what they called Islamists' monopoly of the process.
Critics of the draft constitution say it paves the way for creeping Islamist rule, granting greater legislative sway to clerics and failing to adequately protect individual liberties, freedom of expression and the rights of women and minorities.
Mr. Morsi's supporters have accused opposition activists of working to derail the constitution drafting process in order to keep Egypt in a state of political chaos they can use to hammer the Brotherhood at the polls. They say the opposition has been hijacked by loyalists to Mr. Mubarak's ousted regime.
After days of tit-for-tat protests, opposition forces on Tuesday went a step further, with tens of thousands of Egyptians marching on the presidential palace to denounce Mr. Morsi. Even at the height of the revolution that overthrew Mr. Mubarak, protestors never made it all the way to the palace walls, as they did on Tuesday.
Several hundred remained camped outside the palace walls on Wednesday. That afternoon, Mr. Morsi's Islamist supporters stormed the sit-in, tearing down tents, and riving off protestors. The mobs swelled as supporters of both camps came joined the fray.
Write to Charles Levinson at [email protected] and Matt Bradley at [email protected]
Demonstrations outside the Egyptian Presidential Palace in Cairo turned violent as Islamist demonstrators supporting president Mohammed Morsi clashed with secular protesters who oppose him. Video by WSJ's Matt Bradley via #WorldStream.Supporters of the rival camps swarmed to the palace as night fell, waging back-and-forth battles in side streets outside the palace walls, shutting down major thoroughfares.
Egyptian medics said more than 120 people were wounded in the clashes. The Muslim Brotherhood said at least one of its supporters had been killed while opposition officials said two of their supporters had died. Violence flared elsewhere in Egypt as well. In the Suez Canal town of Ismailiya, protesters burned down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The clashes marked a fearsome escalation in Egypt's postrevolution power struggle, and echoed a decadeslong struggle throughout the Middle East between Islamists and their opponents that has been responsible for some of the region's bloodiest civil wars.
Mohammed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, appeared to suggest that Egypt could be headed for a similar fate, issuing a grim warning that Mr. Morsi was dragging Egypt into "violence and could draw us to something worse."
The conflict kicked off last month after Mr. Morsi issued a decree that granted the president nearly unrestricted powers and paved the way for hurried approval of a constitution the opposition feels is too weighted with Islamic law. The government has set a referendum on the controversial draft for Dec. 15.
As violence spread Wednesday, leaders on both sides dug in their heels, issuing steadily more defiant public statements.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Eryan, speaking on Al-Jazeera, called on millions of Egyptians to go to the palace to "defend the state and its legitimacy." In a jab at Mr. ElBaradei, known internationally for his work as a former United Nations nuclear agency chief, Mr. El-Eryan said: "Where does he get his legitimacy? The European Union? He has no legitimacy."
Mr. ElBaradei said Mr. Morsi bore "full responsibility" for the violence and had "lost all legitimacy." Speaking in a televised press conference, he was flanked by Egypt's top opposition leaders, including ex-Arab League chief Amr Moussa and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.
It was a rare show of unity by Egypt's historically fractured opposition forces, and an indication of how far Mr. Morsi's decree had gone toward galvanizing an opposition that had remained largely quiescent through the early months of Mr. Morsi's presidency.
"We will not enter any dialogue until the constitutional decree is rescinded and the constitutional referendum is postponed," said Mr. ElBaradei. He said they would pursue "any means necessary" to restore democracy and dignity to Egypt.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Gehad al-Haddad, accused Mr. ElBaradei and other opposition leaders of inciting violence. He refused to rule out the possibility that Mr. Morsi could order their arrest on those grounds.
On Tuesday, Egypt's public prosecutor, who was appointed by Mr. Morsi, ordered an investigation into allegations by a private citizen that Messrs. ElBaradei, Sabahy and Moussa, among other opposition leaders, were conspiring with Zionists to overthrow Mr. Morsi's government.
Mr. Morsi hasn't appeared in public since Wednesday's clashes began. His administration has sent out confused messages. His vice president, Mahmoud Mekki, in remarks to reporters Wednesday offered to sit down and negotiate with the opposition. He later said the proposal was his own, not a formal government offer. He said the referendum on the constitution would go forward as planned.
As the crisis deepened Wednesday, three of Mr. Morsi's aides, tapped from outside the Muslim Brotherhood, quit in protest. "Egypt is bigger than a narrow-minded elite," one of the aides, Seif Abdel Fattah, told Egyptian television. He added that he could "no longer stay silent because the Muslim Brotherhood had harmed the nation and the revolution."
The aides who stepped down were popular among many of the young revolutionaries who led the early 2011 uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak. They were tapped in part to fulfill one of Mr. Morsi's campaign pledges to recruit a broad and inclusive advisory team.
Mr. Morsi won Egypt's first democratic presidential elections in a runoff election this summer with a narrow 51% of the popular vote, defeating a controversial Mubarak loyalist. Many Egyptians who long opposed the Brotherhood put aside their misgivings to support Mr. Morsi. It was an early flicker of hope that the historic rift between Islamists and non-Islamists in Egypt had started to shrink.
Mr. Morsi managed his first months in office deftly. He pushed out the country's two most powerful generals with ease and broad support. Last month, he led aggressive diplomatic efforts to bring about a cease-fire to fighting in Gaza, which included aggressive back-and-forth diplomacy between Turkey, Qatar, Hamas and Washington. It won him praise in Egypt and the West as an able statesman.
One day after securing that cease-fire, Mr. Morsi issued his controversial decree. It was an unprecedented expansion of presidential powers, placing Mr. Morsi above judicial oversight, and plunging his administration into its worst crisis yet. Egyptians took to the streets in some of the largest protests since Mr. Mubarak's fall.
Mr. Morsi pressed ahead, ordering the Constituent Assembly, the body charged with drafting the country's new constitution, to rush completion of the draft. Liberal, secular, Christian and non-Islamist members of the assembly had withdrawn in protest against what they called Islamists' monopoly of the process.
Critics of the draft constitution say it paves the way for creeping Islamist rule, granting greater legislative sway to clerics and failing to adequately protect individual liberties, freedom of expression and the rights of women and minorities.
Mr. Morsi's supporters have accused opposition activists of working to derail the constitution drafting process in order to keep Egypt in a state of political chaos they can use to hammer the Brotherhood at the polls. They say the opposition has been hijacked by loyalists to Mr. Mubarak's ousted regime.
After days of tit-for-tat protests, opposition forces on Tuesday went a step further, with tens of thousands of Egyptians marching on the presidential palace to denounce Mr. Morsi. Even at the height of the revolution that overthrew Mr. Mubarak, protestors never made it all the way to the palace walls, as they did on Tuesday.
Several hundred remained camped outside the palace walls on Wednesday. That afternoon, Mr. Morsi's Islamist supporters stormed the sit-in, tearing down tents, and riving off protestors. The mobs swelled as supporters of both camps came joined the fray.
Write to Charles Levinson at [email protected] and Matt Bradley at [email protected]