Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has signed a decree that gives him new sweeping powers. The presidential decree states that any challenges to his decrees, laws and decisions were banned, including by the judiciary.
Morsi signed the decree the day after he won international praise for his diplomatic efforts to broker the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Today angry demonstrators torched the Cairo offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in protest at the decree. Among Egypt’s secular opposition groups, there was mounting alarm over Morsi’s declaration that no court could dissolve the country’s Constituent Assembly, which is drawing up a new Egyptian constitution.
A leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei accused Morsi of usurping authority and acting like a new Pharaoh.