The eponymously named mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, Freedom and Justice, is predictably triumphant Sunday morning, and even includes poetic verse eulogizing Mohamed Morsy entitled, “We’re with you, hero.”
It crows that Mohamed Morsy is the first civilian president to take power in Egypt. More controversially, it declares that “for the first time in its modern history the people are exercising their full power” — although certainly not through the dissolved People’s Assembly.
Inside, the paper quotes experts as saying that in Morsy’s speech at Cairo University on Saturday before members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and others, Morsy “snatched back full [presidential] powers,” citing as evidence of this his outlining of his vision of domestic and foreign policy during the speech and his thanking the armed forces for handing over power on time.
In its typically anti-Brotherhood fashion, party paper Al-Wafd runs a column entitled “Morsy is repeating Sharaf’s mistake,” in which columnist Suleiman Gouda says that Morsy undermined and cheapened the presidential oath by saying it in Tahrir Square. Gouda adds that Morsy may live to regret this move, like former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who similarly made a public appearance in Tahrir Square but was eventually removed from his post following protests against him.
The FJP has an answer for Gouda: the oath in Tahrir was to “reaffirm the revolution” while the oath before the Supreme Constitutional Court “was to respect the law.” The party’s paper makes some ambitious claims about the powers of Morsy’s speech, quoting law professor Rafat Aouda as saying that it had the effect of “nullifying all constitutional declarations in the Arab Republic of Egypt.”
Aouda says that Morsy now has full legislative powers and can cancel the Constitutional Declaration issued by the SCAF in March 2011.
Independent daily Al-Dostour continues its stream of consciousness on its front page with a full page spread of bullet points against the Muslim Brotherhood, including allegations that Egypt is being inundated with smuggled weapons “so that the military feels that the [Brotherhood] is capable of doing anything at any time.”
Al-Dostour alleges that the Brotherhood is attempting to hoodwink the West and America into thinking that the group represents the majority of the Egyptian people and that Morsy is not only the leader of the revolution, “but a new [Gamal] Abdel Nasser or Nelson Mandela.”
The rant concludes with a thinly-veiled message to the Brotherhood: “The Group must realize that their release from prisons and detention was pursuant to a decision made by the military.”
Independently run Al-Watan claims that there was a breach of protocol in the seating arrangements during Morsy’s speech in Cairo University: former Speaker of the dissolved People’s Assembly Saad al-Katatny sat in the front row next to SCAF member Sami Anan, “despite having no formal title.”
The paper also says that religious figures including Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayyeb left the hall in protest at being seated at the back.
Writing in independent daily Al-Shorouk, columnist Wael Qandil condemns the “chaos” surrounding Morsy’s speech at Cairo University.
In his column, entitled, “Chants for Morsy straight out of Mubarak’s dictionary,” Qandil says that public figures and diplomats had to stand in “humiliating” queues at the entrance to the university for 40 minutes, before having to wait for another hour to hand over their mobile telephones before entering the hall. He suggests that the security measures and the declaration by one man of, “Egypt loves you, President” during the speech are “reminiscent of the Mubarak era.”
Independent Youm7 newspaper quotes Saad Eddin Ibrahim, director of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies, as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood “kidnapped” the revolution.
Ibrahim alleges that the Brotherhood “used revolutionary youth and Tahrir Square for their own interests in order to reach power and pressure the military into handing over power.”
Ibrahim also suggested that the Brotherhood are striving to ensure that all powers are given to Mohamed Morsy and that this would not have happened had former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq been elected.
Youm7 also carries a full page report on the Mossad, which it says is living in a state of “terror” after Morsy’s election.
Accompanied by a dramatic picture of Morsy in crosshairs, the story describes “The Mossad’s plans to penetrate the presidential palace and the Muslim Brotherhood” and lists five possible scenarios for the future of Egyptian-Israel relations: 1) Replication of Mubarak’s policy of no peace, no war accompanied by economic cooperation; 2) A narrowing of Mubarak’s no peace, no war policy and cancellation of economic relations; 3) The Syrian model: Cutting political and economic ties without military confrontation; 4) The Hezbollah and Hamas model: Skirmishes on the border by armed militias; and 5) Direct military clashes between the two states.
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
