Cairo • Supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi clashed Friday in the worst violence since he took office, while he defended a decision to give himself near-absolute power to root out what he called "weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt."
The edicts by Morsi, which were issued Thursday, have turned months of growing polarization into an open battle between his Muslim Brotherhood and liberals who fear a new dictatorship. Some in the opposition, which has been divided and weakened, were now speaking of a sustained street campaign against the man who nearly five months ago became Egypt's first freely elected president.
All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies. This applies to decisions he has made since taking office in June and any he makes until a new constitution is approved and a new parliament is elected, expected in the spring at the earliest.
No judicial body can dissolve the upper house of parliament or the assembly writing the new constitution. Both are dominated by the Brotherhood and other Islamists and several cases demanding their disbanding were before the courts, which previously dissolved the lower house of parliament.
The president can take any steps or measures necessary to prevent threats to "the revolution, the life of the nation or national unity and security" or to the functioning of state institutions.
A new judiciary body of "protection of the revolution" is created to reopen investigations, prosecutions and trials of former regime officials, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak, for the killing of protesters during last year's uprising. Other police officers accused of killings, however, will not be retried.
The unrest also underscored the struggle over the direction of Egypt's turbulent passage nearly two years after a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime. Liberals and secular Egyptians accuse the Brotherhood of monopolizing power, dominating the writing of a new constitution and failing to tackle the country's chronic economic and security problems.
"I don't like, want or need to resort to exceptional measures, but I will if I see that my people, nation and the revolution of Egypt are in danger," Morsi told thousands of his chanting supporters outside the presidential palace in Cairo.
But even before he spoke, thousands from each camp demonstrated in major cities, and violence broke out in several places, leaving at least 100 wounded, according to security officials.
Security forces pumped volleys of tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters clashing with riot police on streets several blocks from Cairo's Tahrir Square, birthplace of the Arab Spring, and in front of the nearby parliament building. Young protesters set fire to tree branches to counter the gas, and a residential building and a police vehicle also were burned.
Tens of thousands of activists massed in Tahrir itself, denouncing Morsi. In a throwback to last year's 18-day anti-Mubarak uprising, they chanted the iconic slogan first heard in Tunisia in late 2010: "The people want to overthrow the regime." They also yelled "erhal, erhal," — Arabic for "leave, leave."
Outside a mosque in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, anti-Morsi crowds threw stones and firecrackers on Brotherhood backers who used prayer rugs to protect themselves, injuring at least 15. The protesters then stormed a nearby Brotherhood office.
State TV reported that offices of the Brotherhood's political arm were burned in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, east of Cairo.
In the southern city of Assiut, ultraconservative Islamists and former jihadists outnumbered liberal and leftists in rival demonstrations. The two sides exchanged insults and scuffled briefly.
Morsi and the Brotherhood contend that supporters of the old regime are holding up progress toward democracy. They have focused on the judiciary, which many Egyptians see as too much under the sway of Mubarak-era judges and prosecutors and which has shaken up the political process several times with its rulings, including by dissolving the lower house of parliament, which the Brotherhood led.
His edicts effectively shut down the judiciary's ability to do so again. At the same time, the courts were the only civilian branch of government with a degree of independence: Morsi already holds not only executive power but also legislative authority, since there is no parliament.
His move came at a time when he was enjoying lavish praise from U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for brokering a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers on Wednesday. Clinton had been in Cairo for extensive talks with Morsi before the truce was announced.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, said in a statement that the edicts raise "concerns" for many Egyptians and for the international community, adding that the country's revolution had aimed in part to prevent too much power from being concentrated in one person's hands.
The U.S. urged "all Egyptians to resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue," she said.
Amnesty International, the London-based rights group, said Morsi's new powers "trample the rule of law and herald a new era of repression."
Morsi aide Samer Marqous, a Coptic Christian, resigned to protest the "undemocratic" decree.
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