Egypt: New president ousted by army

[Afroman]

 

Egypt army deployed amid Cairo tension

The BBC's Ben Brown reports from Tahrir Square, which he says is "incredibly noisy and absolutely packed"

Continue reading the main story

Egypt changing

• Egypt crisis Live
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• Q&A: Where is Egypt heading?
• Year of crisis

The Egyptian military has moved into key sites in Cairo hours after its ultimatum passed for President Mohammed Morsi to resolve a political crisis.

Tens of thousands of pro- and anti-Morsi protesters have gathered in areas of the capital, as Egyptians await a televised statement.

Opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei and religious leaders will make this statement, the state news agency said.

Before the deadline passed, Mr Morsi repeated his refusal to step down.

His aides took to social media to describe the events as a military coup but there was no confirmation of this.

There are unconfirmed reports that Egyptian officials have placed an international travel ban on Mr Morsi and other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Armoured personnel carriers

The army is involved in a show of force, fanning out across Cairo and taking control of the capital, BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville reports.

Continue reading the main story Tamarod (Rebel)

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

• Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
• The poor "have no place" in society
• The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn (£3.17bn) loan to help shore up the public finances
• There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then
• "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country
• The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high
• Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US

• Profile: Tamarod protest movement

He described seeing eight armoured personnel carriers heading for Cairo University in Giza, where one of the main pro-Morsi demonstrations was being held. At least 16 people were killed and about 200 wounded at the university when gunmen opened fire on protesters on Tuesday night.

Another pro-Morsi protest was being held in Nasr City, where New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim tweeted that soldiers had fired into the air to disperse demonstrators.

Opponents of the president gathered in Tahrir Square in their tens of thousands. When the army's 48-hour deadline passed, cheers echoed across the square.

Whether it is a military coup or not, on the streets of Cairo it certainly looks like one, our correspondent says.

Before the army's ultimatum to President Morsi expired at 16:30 (15:30 GMT), he posted a Facebook message calling for a roadmap involving an interim coalition government.

His whereabouts were not immediately clear but BBC Arabic confirmed that he was at the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard, a military site where he has stayed since the start of the protests.

One of Mr Morsi's aides, Issam al-Haddad, wrote on his Facebook page that he was "fully aware" his words might be the "last lines I get to post on this page", adding that what was happening was a "military coup".

Defiant speech

The army had earlier held meetings with political and religious leaders to discuss the crisis.

But the ruling Freedom and Justice party - the political arm of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood - stayed away from the talks.

Mr Morsi's opponents have accused him and the Muslim Brotherhood of pushing an Islamist agenda onto Egypt, and say that he should stand down.

In a defiant televised speech on Tuesday evening, Mr Morsi said he would give his life to defend constitutional legitimacy, and blamed the unrest on corruption and remnants of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was reported to have met his top commanders on Wednesday - and a source close to the military told AFP news agency they had been discussing details of a post-Morsi roadmap.

Members of the Tamarod (Rebel) movement, which has mobilised millions of demonstrators onto the streets to demand Mr Morsi's resignation, were also part of the meeting. So too were leading religious figures and Mr ElBaradei.

Egypt in 90 seconds: How did we get here?

The president was put under further pressure by the resignation of six ministers from his government on Monday, including Foreign Minister Kamel Amr.

Elected president

Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak.

But dissent has been growing, with protesters angry at the lack of change in post-revolution Egypt and accusing the Brotherhood of trying to protect its own interests.

"This is a president threatening his own people. We don't consider him the president of Egypt," said Mohammed Abdelaziz, a leader of Tamarod.

However, Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood still have significant public support, and both sides have drawn huge numbers to rallies in recent days.

At least 39 people have now died since the protests began on Sunday.

The instability has also hit global oil prices, sending US light crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since September last year, amid concerns supply routes through the Suez Canal could be affected.

interesting stuff

[Bobby Reds]

Got a feeling Morsi is gonna get his wig pushed back soon

[Kurtis]

http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/

[Kurtis]

overthrown

[Afroman]

Nah egyptians though > ______________

[O Fenomeno]

Nah egyptians though > ______________

Truss

[Gambino]

What did he do to cause so much unrest?

[Mr. Martinez]

Civil war imminent

 

It'll be a miracle if it does't come to that

 

The effort the brotherhood went to, to get to where they were a couple weeks ago...

[Kurtis]

would any of you go on holiday there at this moment?

 

swear im on a high, looks like banter

[stacksbranning]

Hope both sets annihilate each other

[Mr. Martinez]

x 3

[Supermalt]

why are the bbc talking about the objectives of america in this? 

 

what about morsi supporters who are the majority? 

[dub]

overthrown

 

crazy

 

heads on Aljazeera saying this will mess up the political process in other countries, having people saying "democracy doesn't work" and so forth

[Kurtis]

Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday praised Egypt's protests against their leader and said his overthrow by the military means the end of "political Islam".

 

Assad, who is seeking to crush a revolt against his own rule, said Egyptians have discovered the "lies" of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201373223029610370.html

 

ite bro

[Pro]

what about morsi supporters who are the majority? 

 

!!!

 

some countries are not build for democracy

 

this guy was voted in democratically, you can't expect him to fix up a country that has been a mess for so long in a years time

 

so what happens next?

 

Either you might get the salafists taking over which are even worse than the brotherhood

 

or you get another party taking over that gets overthrown couple months down the line

 

or get a dictator from the military since this whole thing has been a coup de tat

[The Somalian]

Are they still killing innocent Christians out there

[Elementalism]

Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday praised Egypt's protests against their leader and said his overthrow by the military means the end of "political Islam".

 

Assad, who is seeking to crush a revolt against his own rule, said Egyptians have discovered the "lies" of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201373223029610370.html

 

ite bro

Assad has always been anti-Muslim Brotherhood. Ba'athism is the antithesis of what it represents. Muslim Brotherhood isn't about secularism, or political plurality really..They're conservatives.. That's why so many Jihadi goons from all over the (Sunni) Muslim world are going at Assad right now, they see him as weak, watered down Arab (also doesn't help that he is a Shia of Alawite extraction)..

Muslim Brotherhood is kinda like the EDL but with a stronger support base and more of a political framework.

Syrian Ba'athism is like the Lib Dems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27athism

 

[A walmart bag]

Religion and state needs to be separate in order for democracy to work. These hardcore islamist aint gonna reform shit except for some sharia laws. Good they're gone.

[Yuri]

In b4 military dictatorship

Oh wait

[The Infamous]

Nah egyptians though > ______________

[Elementalism]

Them generals and colonels might think they're safe now..

It's only a matter of time before them Libyan guns get across the border and the Islamists get their revenge. I bet money nuff of them are ducking to Libya right now to go plot and organize.

The wickedest thing is the West actually started this entire Arab Spring business. Thing is, some of these nutty Islamists really believe it, and some of them think it's their best chance in decades to resuscitate the Caliphate.

Them Egyptian military guys will start to look like old furniture pretty soon..

[time_bomb]

What a mess.

[cambridgebanteer]

democracy doesn't actually work for Muslim countries at orr, from u got a sizeable and monolithic bloc of pious believers (usually between 40 to 50%) who will just vote en masse according to who they are told answers directly to god , you can't have democracy, they will repeatedly vote for autocracy via a free vote if they are allowed to do so.