Egyptians riot…again

A funny thing happens when people use violence to correct their perceived political ills and it succeeds to some degree, they think it will work every time so they can have their way. That’s what happened in Egypt today. Some opponents of Egyptian President Morsi didn’t like the fact that he has been expanding some of his powers by edict, so they took to the streets again according to the Associated Press;

The violence, which left 100 people injured, reflected the increasingly dangerous polarization in Egypt over what course it will take nearly two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Critics of Morsi accused him of seizing dictatorial powers with his decrees a day earlier that make him immune to judicial oversight and give him authority to take any steps against “threats to the revolution”. On Friday, the president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edicts were necessary to stop a “minority” that was trying to block the goals of the revolution.

“There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt,” he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the “umbrella” of the courts to “harm the country.”

In the positive column, some of the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood were burned in the disorder.

“If the Brotherhood’s slogan is ‘Islam is the solution’ ours is ‘submission is not the solution’,” said Khalili, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo. “God does not call for submission to another man’s will.”

Of course, the Muslim Brotherhood leadership was calling for continued violence along the Gaza/Israel frontier yesterday, so maybe now that they’re preoccupied with their own safety, they can shut up for a minute and let the ceasefire take hold, well, unless they use the conflict to distract their own people. Which is probably more likely.

Category: Terror War