Egypt: Morsi flees presidential palace as protests against Muslim Brotherhood regime turn violent

Free people in Egypt are not going quietly into Sharia. "Egypt's Mursi leaves palace as police battle protesters," by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad for Reuters, December 4 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

(Reuters) - Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, presidency sources said.
Officers fired teargas at up to 10,000 demonstrators angered by Mursi's drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. Some broke through police lines around his palace and protested next to the perimeter wall.

The crowds had gathered nearby in what organizers had dubbed "last warning" protests against Mursi, who infuriated opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers. "The people want the downfall of the regime," the demonstrators chanted.

"The president left the palace," a presidential source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. A security source at the presidency also said the president had departed.

Mursi ignited a storm of unrest in his bid to prevent a judiciary still packed with appointees of ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak from derailing a troubled political transition.

Facing the gravest crisis of his six-month-old tenure, the Islamist president has shown no sign of buckling under pressure.

Riot police at the palace faced off against activists chanting "leave, leave" and holding Egyptian flags with "no to the constitution" written on them. Protesters had assembled near mosques in northern Cairo before marching towards the palace.

"Our marches are against tyranny and the void constitutional decree and we won't retract our position until our demands are met," said Hussein Abdel Ghany, a spokesman for an opposition coalition of liberal, leftist and other disparate factions.

Protesters later surrounded the palace, with some climbing on gates at the rear to look down into the gardens.

At one point, people clambered onto a police armored vehicle and waved flags, while riot police huddled nearby.

The Health Ministry said 18 people had been injured in clashes next to the palace, according to the state news agency.....

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14 Comments

| Leave a comment

miriam rove | December 4, 2012 12:54 PM | Reply

like the rest of the smart jihadists they run and let others get killed.
M

St. Patrick | December 4, 2012 12:57 PM | Reply

Well here we go..Another Syria.. Perfect time for Obama and Hillary to make peace with Iran..Supply MORE money to Mursi which of course will be used to buy arms from Iran or Russia or China to suppress the "un-believers" there..Better still just give Mursi and fellow MB savages MORE arms directly!..After all Obama said he'd side with the muslims didn't he?
It's clearly all Bush's fault anyway..

Wellington | December 4, 2012 1:00 PM | Reply

Where Morsi is concerned it's time for a little schadenfreude.

salah | December 4, 2012 2:15 PM | Reply

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
The vast majority of the proud Egyptian people DO NOT WANT SHARIA. They will rise against Mursi and overthrow him. Thus, humiliating the largest Islamic organization in the world, the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as humiliating its powerfull ally, the Obama administration.
Just wait and see.
Bye bye Mursi, bye bye MB, and very soon... bye bye Islam.
May God bless the land of Egypt.

Stephanie | December 4, 2012 2:24 PM | Reply

The Muslim Brotherhood will have a significant role to play in post-Mubarak Egypt. And that is good thing." - US clown Reza Aslan

http://schnellmann.org/president-mursi-jihad-is-our-path.html

traeh replied to comment from Wellington | December 4, 2012 3:23 PM | Reply

Where Morsi is concerned it's time for a little schadenfreude.

Or perhaps even better, just plain freude...

traeh | December 4, 2012 3:27 PM | Reply

Looks like some in the Egyptian military understand Bob Dylan's line -- "Don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin..."

traeh replied to comment from salah | December 4, 2012 3:54 PM | Reply

salah,

I hope you are right about the Egyptian people.

I'd add that the advance of technology, particularly communications technology (internet, cell phones, twitter, and other novelties on the horizon) though it helps tyrants in some respects, on the whole makes things more difficult for them. I suspect the dictators will have an ever tougher time of it as the future accelerates.

Provided technology doesn't end the world first, ever advancing communications may make free speech increasingly difficult to suppress (I hope).

gerard | December 4, 2012 5:57 PM | Reply

Free people in Egypt are not going quietly into Sharia.
Robert Spencer.
Do not go gentle into that good night,..
..Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas

Susanp | December 4, 2012 10:26 PM | Reply

I heard John Bolton say tonight that Morsi hasn't yet unleashed the muslim brotherhood on the protesters to avoid the inevitable violence and deaths. Morsi hopes to ignore or avoid the turmoil until the referendum, already a done deal as far as he's concerned. Morsi's not backing down and will impose his sharia constitution 'as mandated by the Egyptian people'. His attitude is similar to Obama's---I won the election and I will do as I please. It's too late for second thoughts or objections to my agenda. Morsi might not have a Constitution to uphold but Obama does, and he swore to uphold it. So much for oaths of office.

Battle_of_Tours replied to comment from salah | December 5, 2012 12:42 AM | Reply

The vast majority of the proud Egyptian people DO NOT WANT SHARIA. They will rise against Mursi and overthrow him.

More power to the people! And to hell with the MB's primitive regressive 12th century Sharia. This is the 21st century, and government by consensus of the governed by constitutional protection of human rights, via the Social Contract, is far more durable and just than some delusory word of a mythical god conjured by the fevered brain of a 7th century megalomaniac Warlord. By their tyrannical dictatorial actions, the Muslim Brotherhood has condemned itself to extinction. The people want justice, not some malevolent Sharia ruled by primitively ignorant mullahs. In the end, Islam is dead. God bless the great, true Egyptian people.

I only hope the people of Iran, Syria, Lybia, Tunisia are watching.

Leisa | December 5, 2012 6:50 AM | Reply

If people in Egypt do not want sharia law why did the majority vote for Morsi?

GayZionist | December 5, 2012 10:34 AM | Reply

Seems the majority do want Shariah. Least the Pew poll just prior to the revolution seemed to indicate that. Somebody is in denial. Islamic darkness followed by genocide of minorities is where Egypt is headed.

Stuart Parsons | December 5, 2012 3:20 PM | Reply

All this news coming out of Egypt is most upsetting. And poor kind Mr Morsi having to leave his palace in order to get a night of uninterrupted sleep. It is most distressing. I am inclined to think that all this upset is somehow connected to the Mighty Mythical Allah and that dear kind gentleman who was his Prophet and Messenger. But we can sure that it is nothing that a good application of Sharia and good old Muslim common sense cannot put right. Remember The Mighty Mythical Allah knows best.

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