Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-Ayyat was an Egyptian politician, engineer, and professor who served as the 5th president of Egypt from 2012 to 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed him from office in a coup d'état after protests in June. Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Morsi led the Freedom and Justice Party from 2011 to 2012.
Morsi was born in El Adwah, Sharqia Governorate, before studying metallurgical engineering at Cairo University and then materials science at the University of Southern California. He became an associate professor at California State University, Northridge, from 1982 to 1985 before returning to Egypt to teach at Zagazig University. Associating with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was then barred from office under President Hosni Mubarak, Morsi stood as an independent candidate for the 2000 parliamentary election. Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, which resulted in Mubarak's resignation, Morsi came to the forefront as head of the Freedom and Justice Party. It became the largest party in the 2011–12 parliamentary election and Morsi was elected president in the 2012 presidential election. On 30 June 2012, the SCAF handed the authority to Morsi, ending 6 decades of military rule.
In November 2012, Morsi issued a provisional constitutional declaration that granted him unrestricted authority and the authority to legislate without the need for judicial oversight or review. This was a move to stop the Mubarak-era judges from getting rid of the Second Constituent Assembly. The new constitution that was then hastily finalized by the Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, presented to the president, and scheduled for a referendum before the Supreme Constitutional Court could rule on the constitutionality of the assembly, was described by independent press agencies not aligned with the presidential administration as an "Islamist coup". These issues, along with complaints of prosecutions of journalists and attacks on nonviolent demonstrators, led to the 2012 protests. As part of a compromise, Morsi rescinded the decrees. A new constitution was approved by approximately two-thirds of voters in the referendum, although turnout was less than a third of the electorate.
In June 2013, protests calling for Morsi's resignation erupted. The military, backed by the political opposition and leading religious figures, stepped in and deposed Morsi in a coup. It suspended the constitution and appointed Adly Mansour as interim president. Pro-Morsi demonstrations were crushed, resulting in over 800 deaths. Egyptian prosecutors then charged Morsi with various crimes and sought the death penalty, a move denounced by Amnesty International as "a charade based on null and void procedures". His death sentence was overturned in November 2016 and a retrial ordered. Morsi died during trial on 17 June 2019 amid claims that he was being denied appropriate medical care while in custody.
Early life and education
Mohamed Morsi was born in the Sharqia Governorate, in northern Egypt, of modest provincial origin, in the village of El Adwah, north of Cairo, on 8 August 1951 during the final years of the Egyptian monarchy. His father was a farmer and his mother a housewife. He was the eldest of five brothers, and told journalists that he remembered being taken to school on the back of a donkey. In the late 1960s, he moved to Cairo to study at Cairo University, and earned a BSc in engineering with high honors in 1975. He fulfilled his military service in the Egyptian Army from 1975 to 1976, serving in the chemical warfare unit. He then resumed his studies at Cairo University and earned an MS in metallurgical engineering in 1978. After completing his master's degree, Morsi earned a government scholarship that enabled him to study in the United States. He received a PhD in materials science from the University of Southern California in 1982 with his dissertation on aluminium oxide.Academic and engineering career
While living in the United States, Morsi became an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge from 1982 to 1985.In 1985, Morsi quit his job at CSUN and returned to Egypt, becoming a professor at Zagazig University, where he was appointed head of the engineering department. Morsi was a lecturer at Zagazig University's engineering department until 2010.
Political career
Morsi was first elected to parliament in 2000. He served as a Member of Parliament from 2000 to 2005, officially as an independent candidate because the Brotherhood was technically barred from running candidates for office under President Hosni Mubarak. He was a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood until the founding of the Freedom and Justice Party in 2011, at which point he was elected by the MB's Guidance Office to be the first president of the new party. While serving in this capacity in 2010, Morsi stated of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that "the two-state solution is nothing but a delusion concocted by the brutal usurper of the Palestinian lands."Morsi condemned the September 11 attacks as a "horrific crime against innocent civilians". However, he accused the United States of using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and claimed that the U.S. had not provided “evidence” that the attackers were Muslims. He also stated that the aircraft collision alone did not bring down the World Trade Center, suggesting something "happened from the inside." Such views are held by most Egyptians, including Egyptian liberals. His comments drew criticism in the United States.
2011 detention
Morsi was arrested along with 24 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on 28 January 2011. He escaped from prison in Cairo two days later. The Wadi el-Natroun Prison break received widespread news coverage within hours of its occurrence, with some reports indicating the political prisoners were sprung from detention by "armed gangs" taking advantage of the chaos of the Egyptian Revolution.Four years later, Morsi faced trial for his role in the prison break. He and 105 others were sentenced to death on 16 May 2015. The court of cassation overturned the death sentence on Morsi and five others and then ordered retrials.
2012 Egyptian presidential campaign
After Khairat El-Shater was disqualified from the 2012 presidential election, Morsi, who was initially nominated as a backup candidate, emerged as the new Muslim Brotherhood candidate. His campaign was supported by well-known Egyptian cleric Safwat Hegazi at a rally in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, the epicentre of Egyptian worker protests.Following the first round of Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential elections, where exit polls suggested a 25.5 percent share of the vote for Morsi, he was officially announced as the president on 24 June 2012, following a subsequent run-off vote. Morsi supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square celebrated, and angry outbursts occurred at the Egypt Election Authorities press conference when the result was announced. He came in slightly ahead of former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafik and his campaign was noted for the Islamist character of its events. From the initial round of voting on 23 and 24 May 2012, Morsi had attempted to appeal to political liberals and minorities while portraying his rival Ahmed Shafik as a holdover from the Mubarak-era of secular moderation.
On 30 May 2012, Morsi filed a lawsuit against Egyptian television presenter Tawfiq Okasha, accusing him of "intentional falsehoods and accusations that amount to defamation and slander." According to the online newspaper Egypt Independent, an English-language subsidiary of Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, Okasha spent three hours on 27 May 2012 criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi on air. After Okasha aired a video allegedly depicting Tunisian Islamist extremists executing a Christian while asking "how will such people govern?", some analysts suggested that this was regarding Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party. The Tunisian government characterized the video as a farce in a harshly worded statement.
On 24 June 2012, Morsi was announced as the winner of the election with 51.73 percent of the vote. Almost immediately afterward, he resigned from the presidency of the Freedom and Justice Party.
Opinions
On changing the government
He didn't say what he wanted the army to be like after saying that no entity will be above the constitution. He suggested that parliament should control the army's spending, but that some parts of it should be kept secret.The Freedom & Justice Party would respect the Constitution of Egypt and not impose what they believe on people, he said. He said that Egyptians are committed to living in a society with full rights for everyone. The 2011 revolution was triggered by an "Islamic awakening" in the region, according to him.
On Islamic society and non-Muslims in Egypt
Morsi said Coptic Christians "are certainly just as Egyptian as I am, and have as much a right to this homeland as I do." He said freedom of religion is a right granted by Allah and sharia commands Muslims to respect the rights of non-Muslim compatriots. However, in real terms the condition of Egyptian religious minorities such as Shia Muslims and Christians steadily deteriorated during the rule of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood government.On economy
Morsi also compared free markets to the Islamic system, but said Islam requires there to be an ethical component to ensure that the poor share in society's wealth.Presidency
Morsi was sworn in on 30 June 2012, as Egypt's first democratically elected president. He succeeded Hosni Mubarak, who left the office of the President of Egypt vacant after being forced to resign on 11 February 2011.Domestic policy
Morsi reconvened Parliament in its original form on 10 July 2012; this was expected to cause friction between him and the military officials who dissolved the legislature.Morsi sought to influence the drafting of a new constitution of Egypt, favoring a constitution which protects civil rights and enshrines Islamic law.
In a speech to supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on 30 June 2012, Morsi briefly mentioned that he would work to free Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, along with the many Egyptians who were arrested during the revolution. A Brotherhood spokesperson later said that the extradition was for humanitarian reasons and that Morsi did not intend to overturn Abdel-Rahman's criminal convictions.
On 10 July 2012, Morsi reinstated the Islamist-dominated parliament that was disbanded by the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt on 14 June 2012. According to Egypt's official news agency, Morsi ordered the immediate return of legislators elected in 2011, many of whom are members of Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party and other Islamist groups. A Morsi spokesman announced that the president-elect would appoint a Christian and a woman as vice-presidents, but eventually appointed Mahmoud Mekki, a Muslim man. On 22 December 2012, Mekki resigned.
After Kamal Ganzouri's resignation, Morsi tasked Hesham Qandil with forming the new government. On 2 August 2012, Qandil was sworn in as prime minister. Morsi also objected to a constitutional provision limiting presidential power.
File:Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel meets with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy in Cairo, Egypt, April 24, 2013.jpg|thumb|right|Then President Mohamed Morsi and General el-Sisi listen to visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, during a meeting with U.S. officials on 24 April 2013. el-Sisi, chosen by Morsi to be the first post-Mubarak era Defense Minister, would later sanction the removal of Morsi.
On 12 August 2012, Morsi asked Mohamad Hussein Tantawi, head of the country's armed forces, and Sami Hafez Anan, the Army chief of staff, to resign. He also announced that the constitutional amendments passed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces restricting the president's powers would be annulled. Morsi's spokesman, Yasser Ali, announced that both Tantawi and Anan would remain advisers to the president. Morsi named Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was then serving as chief of military intelligence, as Egypt's new defense minister. The New York Times described the move as an "upheaval" and a "stunning purge", given the power that SCAF had taken after the fall of Mubarak. Al Jazeera described it as "escalating the power struggle" between the president and military. On 14 August 2012, Mohamed Salem, an Egyptian lawyer, filed a legal challenge over Morsi's removal of Tantawi and Anan, arguing that Morsi planned to bring back the totalitarian regime.
Morsi fired two more high-ranking security officials on 16 August 2012: intelligence chief Murad Muwafi the Director of the Intelligence Directorate and the commander of his presidential guards.
On 27 August 2012, Morsi named 21 advisers and aides in a slew that included three women and two Christians and numerous Islamist-leaning figures. He also appointed new governors to the 27 regions of the country.
In October 2012, Morsi's government unveiled plans for the development of a major economic and industrial hub adjoining the Suez Canal. Funding commitments had been received, including $8 billion from Qatar. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development committed €1 billion. On 19 March 2013, on a visit to India, Morsi sought support from India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Although the project did not proceed under Morsi, his successor Abdel Fattah el-Sisi revived and launched a streamlined version of the corridor with an expansion of the Suez Canal in August 2014.
On 19 October 2012, Morsi travelled to Egypt's northwestern Matrouh in his first official visit to deliver a speech on Egyptian unity at el-Tenaim Mosque. Immediately before his speech, he participated in prayers there where he openly mouthed "Amen" as cleric Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, the local head of religious endowment, declared, "Deal with the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them. Show us Your omnipotence, oh Lord." The prayers were broadcast on Egyptian state television and translated by MEMRI. Originally, MEMRI translated the broadcast as "Destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder," but later revised their translation.
Morsi did not attend the enthronement of Coptic Pope Tawadros II on 18 November 2012 at Abbasiya Cathedral, though Prime Minister Hesham Qandil did attend.