Egypt’s Mursi Turns Tyrant to Save Democracy
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Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Is democracy in Egypt over before itstarted? Skeptics abroad and protesters in Egypt think so afterPresident Mohamed Mursi’s unilateral decree that his decisionsare not subject to judicial review by the nation’sconstitutional court.
The fears are exaggerated -- this is not the scene in themovie where the democratically elected Islamic leader revealshimself as a religious dictator. Mursi overreached in his decreeand explained it poorly. Yet he did it in the service ofpreserving electoral democracy. And he has reportedly taken afirst step to repair the damage: agreeing to limit the scale ofthe decree to “sovereign matters,” such as protecting theassembly now writing Egypt’s constitution.