I'm more Muslim than you are Before taking to the streets either to protest against President Mohamed Morsi or support him, Egyptians were divided over Morsi's 22 November constitutional decrees, accusing one another of “not being a good Egyptian” or of one upping on who might be a better Muslim, and wanting the country to plunge into chaos. “Secular politicians like Mohamed Al-Baradei want to set the country on fire. They want the West to intervene and occupy our land,” said Mohamed Shafaay. Shafaay posted his comment after sharing a news story that quoting Al-Baradei, the former director of UN nuclear watchdog, calling for mass protests against Morsi's rule. Salah Mahmoud responded to Shafaay by saying that the Muslim Brotherhood is doing nothing but “stealing the will of the Egyptian people who revolted against Hosni Mubarak to build a democratic country.” “The people who are calling themselves Islamists are destroying the dreams of millions of citizens who wanted a modern developed country,” said Mahmoud. Alaa Suleiman agreed with Mahmoud saying that the “Salafis are like cavemen who have been under the ground for decades and just woke up when Mubarak's regime collapsed.” Karim Mustafa who participated in the Saturday pro-Morsi demonstration in Nahdet Masr Square in Giza, said the best way to build this country is to implement Islamic Sharia. ‘Uncle Morsi' Mustafa believes that Morsi's recent constitutional decree which gave him sweeping powers is the only way to protect the revolution from the opposition “that has been kidnapped by fulul (remnants of the Mubarak regime). Ehab Al-Gebali said that Egypt finally has a “strong president who is able to protect Egypt from the counter-revolution forces and implement Sharia.” Sarah Carr wrote in her blog “Inanities” about the millions of Egyptians who voted for Mohamed Morsi and how they are not turning against him. She believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is making the same mistakes of the former ruling party. “The past two weeks, since Morsi announced his Hitler powers, have been the bleakest since the revolution began. Now that the opposition movement is going after Morsi it has attracted the Ahmed Shafik/Omar Suleiman/Amr Moussa crowd, people like some members of my family who aren't necessarily fulul (remnants of the Mubarak regime) but who have a morbid terror of the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam generally. While I was at the pro Morsi rally in Giza last Friday looking at placards saying things such as ‘Islam is light and the Quran is my constitution' I considered my own decision to vote for Morsi in the last presidential election run-offs having wasted many bloody hours thinking about it before the actual vote. The thought that I may have contributed to voting in this avuncular yet megalomaniac individual backed up by an army of devotees is an uncomfortable feeling to say the least, and the word “Ermächtigungsgesetz” keeps flashing before my eyes. People like me who voted for Morsi not out of conviction but to keep out Shafik are predictably the subjects of considerable vitriol at the moment, perhaps justifiably. Every day that passes puts another dent in the legend of the Brotherhood, this 80-year-old group with its dazzling powers of organisation and moderate Islamic vision and familiarity with the Egyptian street. The MB itself is a glorified soup kitchen with excellent logistical skills that end at distributing food to the poor and organising large rallies. They are a charity organisation with a militia that finds itself in charge of a country and which seems to think that its decisions do not need to be backed up by reason or say, the rule of law, but can rely entirely on the Egyptian people trusting “Uncle” Morsi. This was most evident in the Constituent Assembly debacle. Virtually all members of the political opposition — and most crucially minorities (women and Christian representatives) — walked out of the assembly. Those that remained produced a mess of a constitution, but its proponents see no problem in its having been drafted by a largely homogenous group of males. The thinking seems to be: we have faith in God, so have faith in us. The Muslim Brotherhood is doing what the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) did for 30 years, albeit without the God element. The NDP also depended on consolidating their own position by deliberately misrepresenting their opponents, making the law fit their decisions rather than the other way around, a fondness for thuggery and a paternalistic form of governance that reduces the public's role in politics to box ticking. The only difference is Morsi's tedious penchant for moralising (he suggested that Egyptians go to bed early so they can get up for the dawn prayer). The moralising would be tolerable except that they are failing to do anything about the million everyday problems blighting ordinary Egyptians' lives (despite Morsi's election grandstanding about making considerable improvements in his first 100 days) while they have the temerity to think that they can thrust a dictatorship on us because God is on their side and they know best. All this is very Mubaraky. Good luck to the MB if they think it will work.” tweets “Anyone who had any illusions about Morsi's intentions, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, but today there is no doubt; this is Fascism.” @Wael Nawara “Constitutions are just ink on paper after all. We have the street and you have a meaningless paper. All your legitimacy vanished.” @Gigi Ibrahim The majority of people who voted for Morsi in the second round were not Muslim Brotherhood. He and the MB should remember.” @Mona Eltahawy “The worst parts of Egypt's constitution are, ironically, the ones that had the most consensus — presidentialism & autonomous military.” @Shadi Hamid “The time has come when another Muslim will tell me that I'm not Muslim enough because I'm not an Islamist.” @Nadia El-Awady
