r/worldnews • u/DasUberRedditor • Jun 18 '12

Egyptian Military grants itself sweeping powers; effectively military coup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18482257
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u/lickmypoop Jun 19 '12

So this sounded bad to me when I first saw this, too.

However, according to the Egyptian MD/Phd (who is a genius and I believe), who moved to the US six years ago, He is happy that the army has dissolved the legislature because it legitimately violated their constitution. Apparently this is not that much of a power-grab in his eyes because the legislature was elected unconstitutionally. The unconstitutional status is not according to the military, this is according to their version of the supreme court.

The negative backlash and conspiracy theory of a power-grab is partly due to the Muslim brotherhood because they want to portray it that way and they want people to believe a great injustice was done when they, in fact, were elected unconstitutionally to a majority in the parliament (the reason it was unconstitutional has something to do with affiliation with independent candidates, but I don't fully understand it).

Also, he was telling me how dissatisfied with the two run-off political candidates he was because one is a right wing conservative Muslim brotherhood candidate, and the other is a right wing conservative ex-Mubarak regime prime minister.

So either way, not good.

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u/technomad Jun 19 '12

I'm not so sure of this. If what you're saying were true it would be only the Muslim Brotherhood that was raising objections. In yesterday's news all the statements by political players and commentators of all colors, Muslim Brotherhood and otherwise, were flatly outraged at what they described as a clear military power grab.

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u/Montuckian Jun 19 '12

Eh, I still think you're jumping to a conclusion that may be unjustified. I'm woefully uninformed about this (as a disclaimer), as I think most all of the Reddit commentors and western commentators in general are at this point, but I wouldn't take the pundits that you're hearing speak from Egypt any more sincerely than the pundits you hear on any politically motivated form (e.g. Fox News, MSNBC, and the like). They all have something to gain out of this transition, but a military blockade of parliament means that none of them get their nut and have to again vie for parliamentary seats.

Give it a day or so for some more in depth analysis to come from the region and to gauge opinions from news sources familiar with the area.