Egypt not so welcoming for President Morsi? Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
Like a pot reaching a boil, the angst against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is bubbling over in intensity. Anger over a president who has pushed the limits of his authority in the past is now spilling into the streets, with millions protesting Morsi. Ahram Online is reporting that some organizers of the protests are calling for quick elections to replace the president.
A year into his rule, Morsi has so far been accused of trying to take too much power from other branches of government and of not upholding human and political rights after the previous dictator was deposed. Ongoing economic difficulties are another complaint against Morsi. Why should you care? Because you’re paying for it.
The United States has provided millions of dollars of aid to Egypt and considers them a key ally in the region due to their peace accord with Israel. However, after dictator Hosni Mubarak was replaced by Morsi, concerns arose due to Morsi’s close affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a former terrorist group.
One American lawmaker even called for aid to Egypt to be conditioned on the upholding of human rights, after Morsi’s government issued arrest warrents for bloggers opposed to him.
It appears it’s a lot more than a handful of bloggers who have issues with Morsi. Ahram Online said millions of anti-Morsi protesters were out in the streets in the Egyptian capital of Cairo and other cities. Hundreds of thousands of Morsi supporters were protesting elsewhere.
And the numbers quoted on Twitter, citing CNN as one source, are truly stunning. Here’s just one Tweet from someone saying they were among the protesters:
I’m proud to be one of the 33 million egyptians who demonstrated against morsi today .
— قرد إسمو ساميا (@MoniaNabil) June 30, 2013
One anti-Morsi protester was killed when he was shot by unknown gunmen, while hundreds have been injured in the protests, albeit reportedly not due to violent clashes.
In light of the large amounts of your tax dollars that go to the Egyptian government, a new election could hold promise for improvement. At the same time, more instability in Egypt could only encourage terrorists to take advantage of the chaos and attack Israel or sabotage Egyptian gas pipelines to Israel and Jordan.
It’s more chaos in the Middle East. Will it lead to brighter skies or darker storms?
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 30, 2013)