Yesterday was the fifth day of December 2012. This day will be remembered as a dark fateful day in the books of Egyptian history. The reason why this day will go down in the books of history is because, for the very first time, there broke out an armed confrontation between two political factions (Saleh and Awad 2). Yesterday, it was the Islamist youths battling the secular political faction. Today, tension prevails in Cairo. Still, the situation is expected to get worse. Thus is the situation in Egypt. There is tension and anticipated political turmoil. The reason behind these happenings is straightforward. The transitional leader, Mohammed Morsi has exaggerated his power to the extent that nothing that he does can be repealed by the courts. The protests are as well being fuelled by the hurried approval of an unpopular draft constitution by an Islam dominated legislature. This paper seeks to explain the current situation and happenings in Egypt.
Arguably the most populous Arab nation in the world, Egypt is a centre of interest for all business partners from the east, Europe and other African countries. When a country is of such business-oriented culture, the international community will at all times endeavor to know the political on-goings within its boundaries. It is for this reason that the situation in Egypt has caused ripples in the world news with international broadcasters giving a detailed coverage of the happenings. The current situation in Egypt started late last month. While transitional democracy has never been the easiest of things, the Egyptian situation seems a little exaggerated (Saleh and Awad 1). The political climate is currently tense with the Islamists and the secular groups holding contrasting ideas. The secular factions are pointing fingers at the Islamist leaders for having approved an unpopular draft for the 15th December referendum.
The 28th day of November 2012 will be recorded as the worst day in the history of the Egyptian judiciary. On that day, the judges were locked out of the legislative building, where the Islam-dominated legislature hurriedly passed the draft constitution. The legislatures came out of the building with lots of ambiguous explanations to the human right groups and curious journalists. The highest court in the land has since accused Mohammed Morsi, and his allies, referred to as the Muslim Brotherhood, of political trickery and blackmail (Hamza and Aya 1). Morsi is accused of blackmail for having tricked to the public that the powers he had accorded himself were temporary. The opponents of the Islamist administration have had riots twice in two weeks. The pro-Morsi political faction has held a quite a number of meetings at the Cairo University to defend the Islamist view of the situation. Parallel meetings and protests have been held at Tahrir Square by the secular faction.
With two appellate courts having gone on strike and policing throwing teargas in the streets to disperse protesting citizens, the situation in Egypt is expected to get worse (Reza 1). Confusion is raging high as the Supreme Court has postponed it decision regarding the legitimacy of the legislative sitting that approved the draft for the referendum. Towards the end of last month, Mohammed Mosir tended to pull back after suspending a planned protest by the supporters of the Muslim brotherhood, who were to protest in his favor. Still, uncertainty is in the air, with people chanting anti-Morsi protests saying that Mohammed Morsi should step down from politics and that the director of the Muslim Brotherhood should leave.
Works cited
Hamza, Hendawi and Aya, Batrawy. “Egypt Protests: At Least 100,000 Egyptians Demonstrate Outside Presidential Palace In Cairo.” Huffington Post, 04/12/2012
Reza, Sayah., Pearson., Michael and Smith, Laura. “Morsy to address Egyptians amid mounting violence.” CNN International, 06/12/2012
Saleh, Yasmine and Awad, Marwa. “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.” Reuters, 04/12/2012
