CAIRO — Tens of thousands of supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi were pouring into the streets Saturday evening in a bid to outmuscle his opponents, who held their own demonstration Friday.
For both sides, the issue was a decree Morsi issued last week, temporarily giving himself near-absolute powers in order to usher in the new national constitution that his Islamist supporters approved Friday.
But depending on where one stood in Cairo the past two days, Morsi’s moves were either a sign that Egypt’s revolution is degenerating or that it is blossoming into its democratic fruition.
“We are the majority! He is the elected president, and he has legitimacy!” said Hani Yousry, 35, a plumber among the throngs packing the boulevards around Cairo University at Saturday’s demonstration organized by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood backers. If the opposition’s demands “were legitimate, there would be compromise, but their demands are not legitimate.”
A couple miles away in Tahrir Square on Friday, Morsi’s mostly liberal and secular opponents had gathered to express the exact opposite of that idea.
“We object to Morsi’s decree and also to the constitution,” Abdel Azem Mohamed, 23, said Friday. “A lot of people withdrew from the constitution writing assembly, and it does not represent the majority of the Egyptian people.”
“We support Morsi!” shouted one portion of Egypt’s revolutionaries Saturday.
“Down with Morsi!” shouted the other group on Friday.
And so what was supposed to be a shining moment in the course of Egypt’s transition to democracy — the birth of a new national charter to guide the path forward — had become a source of deepening divisions over the meaning of the revolution that ended the rule of strongman Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.
The new constitution is now in the hands of Morsi, who has two weeks to call for a public referendum on it. He was expected to meet with the constitution-writing assembly Saturday evening.
Since his election, Morsi has been locked in a power-struggle with Mubarak-era judges who dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and had threatened to dissolve the Islamist-dominated panel charged with writing the constitution. Many of the judges are now on strike, raising questions about how the constitutional referendum could go forward, because it is supposed to be overseen by the judiciary.
On Saturday, however, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood-backed judges joined in the demonstrations supporting Morsi, indicating that he is trying to find enough support to move forward with the public vote.
On Friday, the State Department weighed in on the deepening political crisis, expressing concern about the “apparent lack of consensus” during the process of drafting the new constitution, which carried on after walkouts by secular, liberal, Christian and other non-Islamist members of the assembly.
“If President Morsi approves this constitution, then the people of Egypt will have a chance via referendum to express their views on it,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “So we would urge all Egyptians to participate actively in that, to review this draft to ensure it meets the highest standards of their aspirations to live in a country that respects universal human rights, that ensures that Egyptians of all stripes are protected under the law."
For both sides, the issue was a decree Morsi issued last week, temporarily giving himself near-absolute powers in order to usher in the new national constitution that his Islamist supporters approved Friday.
But depending on where one stood in Cairo the past two days, Morsi’s moves were either a sign that Egypt’s revolution is degenerating or that it is blossoming into its democratic fruition.
“We are the majority! He is the elected president, and he has legitimacy!” said Hani Yousry, 35, a plumber among the throngs packing the boulevards around Cairo University at Saturday’s demonstration organized by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood backers. If the opposition’s demands “were legitimate, there would be compromise, but their demands are not legitimate.”
A couple miles away in Tahrir Square on Friday, Morsi’s mostly liberal and secular opponents had gathered to express the exact opposite of that idea.
“We object to Morsi’s decree and also to the constitution,” Abdel Azem Mohamed, 23, said Friday. “A lot of people withdrew from the constitution writing assembly, and it does not represent the majority of the Egyptian people.”
“We support Morsi!” shouted one portion of Egypt’s revolutionaries Saturday.
“Down with Morsi!” shouted the other group on Friday.
And so what was supposed to be a shining moment in the course of Egypt’s transition to democracy — the birth of a new national charter to guide the path forward — had become a source of deepening divisions over the meaning of the revolution that ended the rule of strongman Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.
The new constitution is now in the hands of Morsi, who has two weeks to call for a public referendum on it. He was expected to meet with the constitution-writing assembly Saturday evening.
Since his election, Morsi has been locked in a power-struggle with Mubarak-era judges who dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and had threatened to dissolve the Islamist-dominated panel charged with writing the constitution. Many of the judges are now on strike, raising questions about how the constitutional referendum could go forward, because it is supposed to be overseen by the judiciary.
On Saturday, however, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood-backed judges joined in the demonstrations supporting Morsi, indicating that he is trying to find enough support to move forward with the public vote.
On Friday, the State Department weighed in on the deepening political crisis, expressing concern about the “apparent lack of consensus” during the process of drafting the new constitution, which carried on after walkouts by secular, liberal, Christian and other non-Islamist members of the assembly.
“If President Morsi approves this constitution, then the people of Egypt will have a chance via referendum to express their views on it,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “So we would urge all Egyptians to participate actively in that, to review this draft to ensure it meets the highest standards of their aspirations to live in a country that respects universal human rights, that ensures that Egyptians of all stripes are protected under the law."