Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Did Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood just Blink?

Juan Cole 07/11/2012

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Some members of the Egyptian parliament met briefly on Tuesday, in defiance of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and in accordance with the call of President Muhammad Morsi to convene. Morsi over-ruled the SCAF junta’s dissolution of the parliament elected late last fall, which is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties of the Egyptian Religious Right.

Morsi took on not only SCAF but also the Egyptian courts. So, as soon as Morsi issued an executive order instructing parliament to reconvene, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled his decree unconstitutional. Morsi dismissed the new ruling, saying that the SCC lacked the prerogative to make such a ruling.

Then the speaker of the House, Saad al-Katatni, took the floor at the brief parliamentary meeting, saying that parliament wanted the Supreme Administrative court to rule on the dissolution of parliament. the Supreme Administrative Court has the authority to over-rule the president.

The supreme Administrative court has said that it will not rule until next Tuesday

Katatni’s call for the courts to rule on the dissolution of parliament came as a surprise to me. What if the court rules against the Brotherhood? What of the bravado about staying in session until new elections are held.

There are two possibilities here. One is that the Brotherhood has decided to step back from the brink to which Morsi had taken them.

The other is that the Brotherhood is attempting to maneuver SCAF into acknowledging that it should have been a civilian court that decided to implement the the Supreme Constituional Court’s ruling. Morsi may be playing a long game, and carefully asserting his authority, and that of other civilian actors, over the military.

The coming days will inform us as to which is the case.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....