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Wednesday, July 3, 2013
As the deadline issued by the Egyptian military for President Mohamed Morsi to reach a power-sharing agreement with his political rivals within 48 hours passed, the country is in the midst of a coup. Reports have Morsi gone, although no one knows where he is, and the opposition to Morsi is celebrating in the streets. Morsi supporters are also in the streets protesting but are surrounded by a heavy military presence.
The head of Egypt’s armed forces issued a declaration suspending the constitution and appointed the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state. The military met with liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei as well as the heads of the state Islamic institute Al-Azhar and the Egyptian Coptic Church hours before the deadline for the president to draw up Egypt’s political roadmap for the coming months. It was also reported that two members of “Tamarud” and members of the Nour Party attended the meeting.
While the protesters have once again achieved their goal, it will be interesting to see if they will be dissatisfied as they were when Hosni Mubarak was ousted and the military took over. The people of Egypt called for democracy, which is what they got when Morsi was democratically elected; however, change did not come fast enough for them and they took to the streets again looking for another solution.
It is unlikely that the unrest will end with today’s coup as the president and the Muslim Brotherhood have both stated that they will fight to their last breath to protect the president’s democratically elected right to be in office. Morsi even went so far as to say today that he would not step down even if it cost him his life. “If the price for safeguarding legitimacy is my blood, then I am prepared to sacrifice my blood for the cause of safety and legitimacy of this homeland,” he told the country. “Do not be fooled. Do not fall into the trap. Do not abandon this legitimacy. I am the guardian of this legitimacy.”
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