Egypt to pick Islamist or military man as president

[Catbird]

via Twitter: "Security sources: Egypt's Mubarak is unconscious and on respirator, not clinically dead - @Reuters"

[CanadaSue]

Mixed stories for sure. A few more hours... the truth will out.

[Catbird]

Reports are conflicting but from what I've read, it sounds like he had a stroke. Heart stopped but he was revived again and is now life support.

I'm wondering if the military is worried about announcing his death with the crowd in Tahrir Sq. Wouldn't surprise me if he officially "dies" around 6 or 7 in the morning, after the crowd has dispersed for the day.

[sandyd]

At 84...it's not like he was young.

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by Catbird

Reports are conflicting but from what I've read, it sounds like he had a stroke. Heart stopped but he was revived again and is now life support.

I'm wondering if the military is worried about announcing his death with the crowd in Tahrir Sq. Wouldn't surprise me if he officially "dies" around 6 or 7 in the morning, after the crowd has dispersed for the day.

I would agree with that. However the crowds in tahrir know about this latest news and would not surprise me if no one leaves the square at all. They may not even leave until the official news of the election results are announced on Thursday.

[Catbird]

Originally Posted by Mayerling

I would agree with that. However the crowds in tahrir know about this latest news and would not surprise me if no one leaves the square at all. They may not even leave until the official news of the election results are announced on Thursday.

I'm seeing conflicting info on Twitter about Tahrir. Some on-site say that people are leaving, others are saying that more people are arriving. Either way, there's lots of activity.

[CanadaSue]

Mayerling - you live there. In your opinion, how are people likely to react to news of his death, especially this close to the official election results being announced?

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by CanadaSue

Mayerling - you live there. In your opinion, how are people likely to react to news of his death, especially this close to the official election results being announced?

Gee CS, I don't really know but have pondered on this. The country is just so divided. The MB will be overjoyed- that is a given. The youth from the original Tahrir will not be sorry. But the average Egyptian is pretty emotive and emotional. Mubarak in many ways equaled security. These presidential elections have shown just how divided people here are.
When you find bearded taxi drivers and veiled women voting for Shafik it is a pretty good indication that people would like to see a return to security and more and more people - at least those with whom I interact and that is a wide breadth- regret the absence of Hosni Mubarak.

[CanadaSue]

Mayerling, I know you can't predict specific responses but as someone living there, you have a far superior understanding of the people, society & culture than I could ever hope to achieve.

I can understand a longing for a return of security - even if is dearly bought. Uncertainty grows old fast.

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by CanadaSue

Mayerling, I know you can't predict specific responses but as someone living there, you have a far superior understanding of the people, society & culture than I could ever hope to achieve.

I can understand a longing for a return of security - even if is dearly bought. Uncertainty grows old fast.

Dearly bought or temporarily sided?
My feeling is and most Egyptian with whom I discuss this agree - that a religious govt is much harder to get rid of than a secular- albeit - military or police state.
Religious govts become entrenched and intertwined within the society. Much more dangerous from an ideologic point of view.

I fear the loss of individual( read the most basic- religious) freedoms under a govt run by the MB more than I do of some curtailment of civil liberties under a military regime. I very much think that Egyptians can curb abuses much easier with a military state than with an islamic one.

Not a good choice at all but one that the Egyptians are going to have to make ( acutally they already have).

[Sonny]

Egypt election results,, wait for it.. wait, ok break for intermission,, wait, wait ect.

Farouq Sultan, head of the election commission, has begun a news conference to deliver the results.. Reports say his announcement of the results may be preceded by a 90-minute "adjudication"

tweet, "Farouq Sultan hopes we die of boredom before he actually has to say a name.."

There is heavy security, including tanks, around the Higher Presidential Election Commission...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18569761

~

[Mayerling]

Morsi won. Good bye Egypt. Very sad day for this country.
Yes, he read at least 25 pages!

[Sonny]

Jon Williams BBC foreign editor tweets:
immediate civil crisis in Egypt averted as MB win presidential vote.

1443: Cara Swift BBC News producer in Tahrir Square
Some men are crying in Tahrir. "Now we have true freedom one man said"..

1452:
Reaction is beginning to come in from outside Egypt. News agency AFP reports celebratory gunfire in Gaza. Hamas is calling this "an historic moment", the agency says.


~

[Dreamweaver]

EGYPT'S NEW PRESIDENT: OUR CAPITAL 'SHALL BE JERUSALEM, ALLAH WILLING'


http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...-Allah-Willing

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by Dreamweaver

EGYPT'S NEW PRESIDENT: OUR CAPITAL 'SHALL BE JERUSALEM, ALLAH WILLING'


http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...-Allah-Willing

Yes, this is indeed true. The upside is that this neighborhood voted overwhelmingly for Shafik!!!

[Brihard]

Originally Posted by Dreamweaver

EGYPT'S NEW PRESIDENT: OUR CAPITAL 'SHALL BE JERUSALEM, ALLAH WILLING'


http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...-Allah-Willing

Has anyone found anything elsewhere to confirm the authenticity of these translations? Or Mayerling, can you vouch for it?

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by Brihard

Has anyone found anything elsewhere to confirm the authenticity of these translations? Or Mayerling, can you vouch for it?

Yes I can.
Cannot vouch that this is official MB position however. But this did happen. And as I said in previous post, the neighborhood where this rally occurred voted overwhelmingly for Ahmed Shafik.

Look, the masses who voted for Morsi were Islamists, the original protestors who have been quite frank that they voted for Morsi to oppose the military and now will oppose Morsi, and the poor who honest to god think that they are about to get free homes and jobs.

I can understand why he won. And the MB have always been there for this nation's poor and disenfranchised and the GOE certainly has not. I hope that is one change they can do while in power.

[sandyd]

the poor who honest to god think that they are about to get free homes and jobs.

Is that what they were promised?

OMG....yet...I know here they have new apts going up that are only for low income folks and they pay almost nothing to live in them....and get food from gov so...if we only could also give them jobs, in some ways we already give food and shelter to many.

Not like that in Egypt?

[dyrt]

Egypt has little income. Their reserves are shrinking fast. They are living off charity from other countries. The Muslim Brotherhood is rapidly handing out street justice. The end game of the revolution begins now.

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by dyrt

Egypt has little income. Their reserves are shrinking fast. They are living off charity from other countries. The Muslim Brotherhood is rapidly handing out street justice. The end game of the revolution begins now.

Where is the MB handing out street justice??
The SCAF still oversees most of the President's-to-be powers.
Watch out for change in the personal status laws as I don't think either the states nor SCAF care that much about outlawing alcohol, lowering the age of consent of marriage, retracting the Muslim's woman right to divorce, separation of women and men in beaches etc etc.

The larger issue at state here is the writing of the constitution.

Having said that, I am very very disheartened that the Egyptians have elected an MB for their President. Very sad .

And as you can see, this election was all about politics and power- even for the so called revolutionary youth. They voted for Morsi to defeat Shafik because they would rather shoot off their foot then give any power to any one from the old regime. They will now try to remove morsi or at least that is what they have stated.

Too bad that these elections weren't nulled due to so many irregularities and new ones run.

[dyrt]

Originally Posted by Mayerling

Where is the MB handing out street justice??

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_.../NE01Dj06.html

The first Islamist equivalent of workers’ soviets, or “revolutionary committees,” were formed to discipline bakeries and propane sellers who “charge more than the price prescribed by law,” the Federation of Egyptian Radio and Television reported on May 3, 2011. These committees formed under the aegis of the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Justice. What has already emerged in Egypt, to use Leninist terminology, is a situation of dual power. The military government remains in command, but critical economic functions already are in the hands of Islamist parties. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Justice began forming “revolutionary committees” to mete out street justice to bakeries, propane dealers and street vendors who “charge more than the price prescribed by law”, the Federation of Egyptian Radio and Television reported on May 3, 2011. The Solidarity ministry declared that “Gangsters are in control of bread and butane prices” and “people’s committees” would be formed to combat them.

[Mayerling]

Originally Posted by dyrt

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_.../NE01Dj06.html

Frankly, I see nothing wrong with that. There were riots because of overcharging of bread and butane gas. people were buying them up and then charging double and some could not afford them.

[Sonny]

Egypt's president-elect Mohamed Morsi, wants tor restore ties to Iran. Iran hailed Morsi's victory as an "Islamic Awakening."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Lates...ties-with-Iran

Fars news quoted Morsi as saying Egypt's Camp David peace accord with Israel "will be reviewed", without elaborating.

---------------------
Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz. at The Christian Science Monitor

~