• 'Leave, leave': Egyptians gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest president's decree

    A protester runs to throw a tear gas canister back to riot police during clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday. President Mohammed Morsi's declaration last week of new powers for himself has sparked days of demonstrations.

    The Associated Press writes

    CAIRO — Egyptian protesters and police clashed in Cairo on Tuesday just hours ahead of a planned massive rally by opponents of the country's Islamist president demanding he rescind decrees that granted him near-absolute powers.

    Police fired tear gas and hundreds of protesters pelted them with rocks at a street between the U.S. Embassy and Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime nearly two years ago.


    The protesters have been staging a sit-in at the square since Friday night to demand President Mohammed Morsi revoke his decrees.

     

    By midday, hundreds were starting to gather in Tahrir, chanting against Morsi's decrees and the Brotherhood. A new banner in the square proclaimed, "The Brotherhood stole the country."

    "We are here to bring down the constitutional declaration issued by Morsi," said one protester at Tahrir, Mahmoud Youssef.

    Egypt's Morsi, top judges compromise to defuse soaring tensions over decree

    Hundreds of lawyers meanwhile gathered outside their union building in downtown Cairo ahead of their march to Tahrir. "Leave, leave," they chanted, addressing Morsi.

    The rally planned for later Tuesday, with marches from various parts of Cairo to converge on Tahrir, is to be a significant test of the opposition's ability to bring out supporters and the public against Morsi's edicts issued last week.

    The opposition says the decrees give Morsi near dictatorial powers by neutralizing the judiciary at a time when he already holds executive and legislative powers. Key parts of the judicial system have denounced the measures.

    After encountering a wave of protests in response to a decree from Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi that would have raised his edicts above judicial review, Morsi moved quickly to contain the damage. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    Morsi, in office since June, says the decrees are necessary to protect the "revolution" and the nation's transition to democratic rule. His declaration made all his decisions immune to judicial review and banned the courts from dissolving the upper house of parliament and an assembly writing the new constitution, both of which are dominated by Islamists. The decree also gave Morsi sweeping authority to stop any "threats" to the revolution.

    Morsi's supporters canceled a massive rally they had planned for Tuesday, citing the need to "defuse tension" after a series of clashes between the two camps since the decrees were issued Thursday.

    But a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group from which Morsi hails, said demonstrations supporting the president could go ahead outside the capital and that supporters would form human chains in some provinces to protect Brotherhood offices. Morsi's supporters say more than a dozen of their offices have been ransacked or set ablaze since Friday.

    President within his rights?
    On Monday, Morsi met with the nation's top judges and tried to win their acceptance of his decrees. But the move was dismissed by many in the opposition and the judiciary as providing no real concessions.

    Riot police use tear gas on protesters during clashes in Tahrir Square on Tuesday.

    Presidential spokeman Yasser Ali, said Morsi told the judges that he acted within his rights as the nation's sole source of legislation, assuring them that the decrees were temporary and did not in any way infringe on the judiciary. He underlined repeatedly that the president had no plans to change or amend his decrees.

    According to a presidential statement late Monday, Morsi told the judges that his decree meant that any decisions he makes on "issues of sovereignty" are immune from judicial review.

    The vaguely worded statement did not define those issues, but they were widely interpreted to cover declaration of war, imposition of martial law, breaking diplomatic relations with a foreign nation or dismissing a Cabinet. Morsi's original edict, however, explicitly gives immunity to all his decisions and there was no sign it had been changed.

    Photoblog: Protesters in Tahrir Square hold funeral for activist killed in clashes

    The statement Monday did not touch the immunity that Morsi gave the constitutional assembly or the upper chamber of parliament, known as the Shura Council. It also did not affect the edict that the president can take any measures he sees as necessary to stop threats to the revolution, stability or public institutions. Many see that edict as granting Morsi unlimited emergency powers.

    The Shura Council does not have lawmaking authorities but, in the absence of the more powerful lower chamber, the People's Assembly, it is the only popularly elected, national body where the Brotherhood and other Islamists have a majority. The People's Assembly was dissolved by a court ruling in June.

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  • US seeks 'durable outcome' in Gaza truce talks, Clinton says in Israel

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has undertaken the difficult task of helping to shepherd a possible ceasefire. Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, meanwhile, is playing a key role as an intermediary with Hamas, a group labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    NBC News staff and wire reports writes

    Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET: Following her arrival in Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated at a press conference Tuesday that America's commitment to Israel's security is "rock solid," adding that "the goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike."

    "The rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside Gaza on Israeli cities and towns must end, and a broader calm restored," Clinton said, adding that there are no substitutes for security and a just and lasting peace.

    Speaking in Jerusalem, Clinton also offered her condolences for those lost in the violence.


    "Our hearts break for the loss of every civilian, Israeli and Palestinian, and for all those who have been wounded and are living in fear and danger," she said, adding that she would work with Israel and Egypt on brokering a truce in Gaza "in the days ahead."

    Israel is prepared to escalate its offensive but would prefer a long-term diplomatic solution, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

    "If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem with diplomatic means, we prefer that," he said in a public statement alongside Clinton.

    "But if not, I'm sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever action is necessary to defend its people."

    Earlier, a Hamas official said a truce with Israel would not be reached Tuesday because the Israeli government had yet to respond to proposals.

    "The Israeli side has not responded yet, so we will not hold a (news) conference this evening and must wait until tomorrow," Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas leader, told Reuters. "The truce is now held up because we are waiting for the Israeli side to respond," he added in a short telephone interview.

    A flurry of violence hit Gaza Tuesday as Israel bombed a Gaza bank and targeted the homes of militants. Hamas responded with more than 100 rockets. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Clinton landed at 9:51 p.m. local time in Tel Aviv, where she met with Netanyahu. Later, Clinton will meet with the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah before heading to Cairo.

    A U.S. official stressed to NBC News that Clinton would not meet with representatives of Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, largely because of its failure to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist.

    Egyptian officials said talks are ongoing to reach a truce in Gaza, although any agreement appears unlikely to address the long-term areas of disagreement between Israel and the Hamas leaders of the Gaza Strip, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported Tuesday.

    The expected "cessation of hostilities" will call on all parties to use maximum restraint, according to one former intelligence official familiar with the talks.

    Slideshow: Israel, Gaza violence escalates

    /

    Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.

    Launch slideshow

    Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who is seeking to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. 

    According to White House officials, Obama spoke to Morsi for the third time in 24 hours. Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama wanted to talk to Morsi before Clinton's arrival in Israel.

    Rhodes said Obama underscored the importance of Morsi working toward a de-escalation to the conflict in Gaza. He also commended Morsi's efforts to pursue a de-escalation and acknowledged Egypt's important role in the region's security.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attempting to bring about a ceasefire, or to prevent Israel from invading Gaza while convincing Egypt's president to pressure Hamas to stop firing rockets. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Rhodes said Obama emphasized the importance of a diplomatic solution, but said that rocket fire from Gaza into Israel must stop.

    Israel Defense Forces continued airstrikes overnight, and also said 39 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel Tuesday in a message on its Twitter account.

    Since Israel launched its military campaign seven days ago in response to rocket fire, more than 100 people in Gaza and three people in Israel have been killed.

    Internationally, the main focus was on stopping the violence, and Morsi hinted at a possible breakthrough Tuesday.

    Speaking at his sister's funeral in Egypt, Morsi said the "aggression on Gaza" would end Tuesday. He made the apparently off-the-cuff comments in front of mourners who had come to pay their respects, but did not elaborate. Several journalists traveling with Morsi confirmed he made the remark.

    'Army must invade': In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza

    In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel would be a “willing partner” in a cease-fire, but also issued a warning.

    He said if further military action proved necessary “to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel will not hesitate to do what is necessary to defend our people.”

    And Mohammed Deif, the new leader of Hamas' military wing, sounded a defiant note, saying that the movement was ready to fight and would not back down from its efforts to liberate Palestine.

    He was speaking in his first audio recording since the group’s previous top military commander, Ahmed Jabari, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday. Deif, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past, called for Hamas’ supporters to remain steadfast. 

    We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza-Israel crisis

    Related stories:

    Hamas says 'land war' would cost Israeli PM Netanyahu the election

    Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict

    How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets in Gaza conflict

    Israeli government websites under mass hacking attack

    'Difficult' situation

    It is unclear how much influence Clinton can have on the situation.

    “She is going to go out there to be in the region to have direct, face-to-face discussions with those leaders,” Rhodes said. “I don’t want to predict exactly what the outcome of those discussions will be. We all know how difficult this situation is.” 

    The White House thinks the leaders who are heavily involved in the region “understand what the best outcome is,” Rhodes added, but that a peaceful goal is only achievable “if Hamas takes action to stop what they’ve been doing.”

    An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier, police and the army said.

    An Israeli air strike on two cars in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians Tuesday, while two children died in an attack in the north of the territory, local residents and medics told Reuters. 

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and said a threatened Israeli ground operation in the Palestinian enclave would be a “dangerous escalation” that must be avoided.

    Later, standing alongside Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Ban urged Israel to show "maximum restraint" and condemned rocket attacks on Israel.

    Also Tuesday, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Sudan traveled from Egypt to Gaza in an unprecedented move designed to show solidarity with the Palestinians, NBC News reported.

    US Embassy guard wounded
    Meanwhile, a man was arrested after he stabbed a security guard Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, a police spokesman told Reuters. 

    The spokesman said the guard opened fire during the attack.

    Israel Radio said the attacker, who police said was armed with a knife and an ax, was wounded. 

    Oded Balilty / AP

    Israeli police officers detain a man who attacked a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday.

    NBC's Shawna Thomas, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ian Johnston, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Beirut car bomb blast kills top intelligence official

    Hundreds were rushed to emergency rooms after an explosion left a 15-foot crater in one of Beirut's nicest neighborhoods. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    NBC News staff and wire reports writes

    Updated at 4:43 p.m. ET: BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri seven years ago.

    The rush-hour bomb in the center of the Lebanese capital killed eight people and wounded about 80 others, heightening fears that Syria's war is spilling over into Lebanon.

    Among the dead was Wissam al-Hassan, the head of a Lebanese intelligence agency who had also uncovered a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician, a Lebanese official said.

    NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

    Al-Hassan was a close aide to Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who was killed in a 2005 bomb attack in downtown Beirut. Al-Hassan's investigation into Hariri's death uncovered evidence that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the killing.

    Follow this story at BreakingNews.com

    It was also not clear if the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the Syria conflict.

     

    Ambulances rushed to the scene in the Ashafriyeh district, a mostly Christian area, as smoke rose from the area. 

    The explosion ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square.

    Reuters

    Phalange leader Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a member of parliament, condemned the attack.

    "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.

    Several cars were set on fire by the explosion and the front of a multi-story building was badly damaged. Residents ran about in panic looking for relatives while others helped carry the wounded to ambulances, Reuters reported. 

    Slideshow: Bombing in Beirut

    Reuters

    Huge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.

    Launch slideshow

    Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'

    Security forces blanketed the area.


    Witness Danny Rizkallah told NBC News the blast took place close to the headquarters of a Lebanese opposition political party with links to Syria rebels and close to the scene of the 1982 assassination of then president-elect Bachir Gemayel. The affluent, largely Christian, district is also home to the American University of Science and Technology (AUST).

    He said he was having lunch nearby when the blast lifted him from his chair. “It was an incredibly powerful explosion,” he said. “I knew immediately it was a bomb because it has such a different sound to shelling.”

    “I rushed around the corner to see what happened there were lots of people injured by broken glass from the windows of nearby stores. It did a great deal of damage to nearby buildings and there was a lot of glass.

    Hasan Shaaban / Reuters

    Burning cars and damages are seen at the site of an explosion in Ashafriyeh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012.

    “For this to happen is shocking because we really thought this sort of thing had stopped in Beirut, and for it to happen in the Christian district is also very unusual. I really don’t know who is behind this, or why. Our politics is very messed-up.”

    The last bombing in Beirut was in 2008 when three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a U.S. diplomatic car. 

    U.S. officials are condemning the attack "in the strongest terms," calling the blast a terrorist attack.

    "We condemn this act of terrorism," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

    "There is no justification for such violence," she added. "We obviously express our heartfelt sympathies for the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and injured, and we stand by the people of Lebanon and renew our commitment to a stable, sovereign, and independent Lebanon."

    National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement there is "no justification for using assassination as a political tool." He says the U.S. will stand with the Lebanese government to bring to justice those responsible "for this barbaric attack."

    Sunni-Shiite tensions
    Tension between Sunnis and Shiites has been rumbling in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war but reignited after the Syria conflict erupted.

    It reached its peak when Hariri, a Sunni, was killed in 2005. Hariri supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him -- a charge they both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.

    Clashes over Syrian conflict in Lebanon leave ten dead

    Hezbollah's political opponents, who have for months accused it of aiding Assad's forces -- have warned that its involvement in Syria could ignite sectarian tension of the civil war. 

    At least nine people die as Sunni Muslims and Alawites fight for a second day. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    However fighting had broken out this year between supporters and opponents of Assad in the northern city of Tripoli.

    Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News' Paul Nassar contributed to this report.

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  • NBC's Jim Maceda answers questions about the Mideast protests

    American missions across the Arab world tightened security on Friday in anticipation of more anti-U.S. demonstrations on the Muslim day of prayer.

    Tensions flared with attacks  on U.S. embassies in Sudan and Tunisia, protests in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, and even the torching of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Lebanon. 

    Jim Maceda, veteran NBC News' Foreign Correspondent, has been reporting from Cairo on the protests triggered by an anti-Islam film for the last several days.

    Is the wave of protests about more than the amateur, yet provocative, anti-Islam film? What’s really behind the anger? Maceda answered reader questions about the demonstrations earlier today. 

    Replay the informative chat below. 

     

  • Syria crisis: Russia warns Obama against 'violation' of international law

    Activists release amateur video reportedly showing the shelling of Aleppo by Syrian government forces while Japan confirms a war correspondent, Maya Yamamoto, was killed by gunfire in Syria. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    NBC News and wire reports writes

    Updated at 12:00 p.m. ET: Russia rebuffed President Barack Obama's threat of unilateral action against Syria Tuesday, as officials said 2,500 refugees fled across the border into Turkey in just 24 hours – one of the highest daily refugee flows of recent weeks.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking after meeting China's top diplomat, said Moscow and Beijing were committed to "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law ... and not to allow their violation".

    Obama draws 'red line' for Syria on chemical and biological weapons

    Obama on Monday threatened "enormous consequences" if his Syrian counterpart used chemical or biological arms or even moved them in a menacing way.

    The president used some of his strongest language yet to warn Assad not to use chemical or biological weapons – after Syria acknowledged for the first time that it had such weapons and could use them if foreign countries attacked it.

    At an impromptu White House news conference, President Obama comments on GOP Mo., Senate candidate Todd Akin's remarks about rape, Mitt Romney's refusal to release more than two years' worth of tax returns, and the unrest in Syria. Watch the entire news conference.

    "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is (if) we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized," he said. "That would change my calculus."

    Syria 'ready to discuss' Assad's resignation, deputy PM says

    "We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama said, perhaps referring to Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group, an Iranian-backed ally of Assad, or to Islamist militants.

    Turkey's foreign minister has warned it can accommodate no more than 100,000 refugees and that the United Nations may need to create a "safe zone" within Syria to shelter any beyond that number.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

    Launch slideshow

    Thousands of refugees
    A Turkish official told Reuters on Tuesday that about 2,500 people fleeing violence in Syria had entered Turkey in the preceding 24 hours, most of them entering the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay.

    Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov reported on Twitter that four Syrian colonels and two captains crossed the border early Wednesday.

    PhotoBlog: Clashes over Syrian conflict in Lebanon leave ten dead

    Turkey is now sheltering close to 70,000 Syrian refugees and is struggling to accommodate the influx, which rose after a bomb attack near the border killed eight, spreading panic.

    In Lebanon, street battles between Sunnis and Alawites continued for a second night running, fueled by conflicting loyalties in the conflict across the border. The BBC reported that seven were killed and more than 70 wounded in the country's second-largest city, Tripoli.

    Syrian President Bashar Assad, an Alawite, is battling largely Sunni opposition fighters. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, himself a Sunni, appealed to both sides to end the "absurd battle" in Tripoli.

    In Syria itself, the army deployed tanks on a ring road surrounding Damascus on Wednesday and shelled southern neighborhoods where rebels operate, in the heaviest bombardment on the capital since the army reasserted control last month, residents said.

    At least eight people were killed in the shelling, which was accompanied by an aerial bombardment, on the Kfar Souseh, Daraya, Qadam and Nahr Aisheh neighborhoods, they told Reuters.


    Regional news channel Al-Jazeera reported that at least 24 people were killed across the country on Tuesday, among them women and children in Aleppo - the city over which the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) claims two-thirds control, and where a Japanese journalist was killed on Monday.

    Activists: Japanese journalist killed in Aleppo

    "We now control more than 60 per cent of the city of Aleppo, and each day we take control of new districts," said Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, a colonel with the FSA. He went on to list some 30 districts which he claimed were under FSA control, including about half of the embattled neighborhood of Salaheddin.

    But a security source in Damascus rejected the claims, according to the AFP news agency, calling them "completely false".

    Syrian President Bashar Assad makes a rare public appearance for the Muslim holiday of Eid on Sunday. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    Likened to Iraq invasion
    Syrian soldiers killed a journalist sympathetic to the rebels during a raid in Damascus on Wednesday. Mosaab al-Odaallah, who worked for the state-run Tishreen newspaper, was shot at point-blank range at his home by troops conducting house-to-house raids in the southern Nahr Eisha district of the capital, opposition activists said.

    Massoud Akko, head of the public freedoms committee at the underground Syrian Journalists Association, said Odaallah's death brought to 54 the number of Syrian journalists, bloggers and writers killed by security forces during the uprising.

    "Most have been killed with shots to the head. The regime appears to have adopted a systematic policy of killing journalists and social media activists," Akko told Reuters by telephone from Berlin.

    Earlier, Syria's deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Obama's talk of action against Syria was media fodder.

    Speaking after the news conference held by Russia's Lavrov, Jamil said the West was seeking an excuse to intervene, likening the focus on Syria's chemical weapons with the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces and the focus on what proved to be groundless suspicions that Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction.

    "Direct military intervention in Syria is impossible because whoever thinks about it ... is heading towards a confrontation wider than Syria's borders," he told a news conference in Damascus.

    Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported the concerns of Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of Syria's population. It said Christians fleeing the fighting have detected an increasingly radicalized Islamist strain among the rebels that makes them fear for their future.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Egypt's elections: A struggle between secularism and political Islam -- and how it may transform the Middle East

    AP

    The main candidates, from left: Ahmed Shafiq, Mohammed Mursi, Abdel-Monein Abu al-Fotouh, Amer Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi.

    Richard Engel, NBC News writes

    CAIRO -- The upcoming Egyptian elections have the potential to not only change Egypt, but the entire Middle East. There’s a strong possibility that decades of American policy in the region can be overturned.  The elections have huge implications for the United States and even bigger ones for Israel.  War and peace may be in the balance. 

    Here in our Cairo bureau as I listen to the boats float by on the Nile blasting music as revelers enjoy the city before it’s clogged by voting with checkpoints, there’s talk that this could be a moment like 1979 in Iran, a possible 180-degree shift for the country and the Middle East.  I’ll start at what’s immediately coming up.


    On Wednesday and Thursday, Egyptians go to polls to elect a new president.  First off, that’s big statement in itself.  Egypt hasn’t elected a truly democratic leader in its 5,000 years of recorded history.  This is the land of the pharaohs, the undisputed and often tyrannical God-kings.  Then it was the land of the Romans, sultans, Mamluks, Khedives, kings, European-dominated governments and finally military rulers. 

    There are five main candidates who have a chance of winning the election.  Egypt has a presidential system.  The president runs the state.  Who the president is matters profoundly.  In no particular order, the candidates are:

    Mohammed Mursi: Mursi is a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The Muslim Brotherhood, or the Brotherhood for short, is an Islamic group founded in Egypt in 1928.  It has been pursuing a secret campaign to take over the government since its creation.  The Brotherhood wants a state that is modern, powerful, technologically advanced and Islamic.  The Brotherhood is not the Taliban.  It does not want to ban music and pull girls from school, but it does believe that Islam must be the core of politics and society.  The Brotherhood’s slogan has long been “Islam is the solution.”  In practice that means, if there’s poverty, the Brotherhood will look to Islamic principles of helping the poor to solve them.  The Muslim Prophet Mohammed was a big believer in charity and firmly established helping those in need as a basis of the religion. If there’s disease, the Brotherhood sees Islam and its traditions as having a solution to that too.  In questions of war and peace, the Brotherhood will study Islam and its history to determine if a potential conflict is just and warranted.  For the Brotherhood, Islam is always the solution.  It’s Islam uber alles.  The Brotherhood is a politically astute group.  It is calculating and slow moving, believing that the best way to gain power is by gradually winning political and social influence.  The Brotherhood is the grandfather of nearly all Islamic movements.  It is the mothership from which smaller, often more radical groups were born.  Hamas in Gaza, for example, is a faction of the Brotherhood.   The Brotherhood is also rich.  Its finances are murky and secretive.  The group has wealthy donors, especially in the Sunni Arab Gulf states. 

    According to some estimates, the Brotherhood has a million activists in Egypt.  Mursi is the official brotherhood candidate, but would likely end up as the group’s “face man.”  Mursi is not charismatic.  He’s not a dynamic speaker.  He wasn’t the Brotherhood’s first choice.  The group initially wanted its powerful money man Khairat al-Shater, a business tycoon who manages the group’s wealth, to be its candidate, but he was disqualified on account of his prison record.  Egypt’s military-backed presidents, including Hosni Mubarak, imprisoned many Brotherhood members, seeing the group as its biggest existential threat.  Analysts say Shater, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, and its leadership committee would end up being the real force behind Mursi, pulling the strings. Right after the revolution that toppled Mubarak, the Brotherhood said it would not present a candidate for president, but then broke its promise.  A Brotherhood victory would be a total about-face for Egypt.  Since the late president Anwar Sadat, Egypt has pursued a largely pro-American, Western-leaning policy.  Egypt has maintained a peace treaty with Israel since March 1979, following the Camp David accords.  The Brotherhood has already threatened to cancel the peace treaty if the United States stops providing the $2.1 billion of military and development aid Egypt has received annually since 1982.  The Brotherhood now talks publicly about maintaining good relations with the United States, but at its core the group is not pro-American.  The Brotherhood is actively anti-Israel.  Egypt’s long-term relations with United States and short-term relations with Israel could be at risk if Mursi becomes president.  Egypt is the biggest country in the Middle East.  So goes Egypt, so goes the region.  A dramatic shift in Egypt’s alignment would have global implications.

    Photoblog: Egypt prepares for the post-Mubarak presidential era

    Abdel Monein Abu al-Fotouh.  Al-Fotouh was a member of the Muslm Brotherhood for decades.  He’s a devoted Islamist.  In fact, he was once of member of the even more radical Gamaa Islamiya (Islamic Group), the same organization of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric imprisoned in the United States for masterminding the first attack on New York’s World Trade Center in 1993.  Al-Fotouh left the Gamaa Islamiya for the Brotherhood.  He then broke from the Brotherhood after the Tahrir Square revolution.  The Brotherhood promised at the time not to run a presidential candidate.  Al-Fotouh disagreed and launched his own campaign.  His disobedience to the Brotherhood’s orders infuriated group’s tightly controlled hierarchy and Al-Fotouh was expelled from the Brotherhood.  Since the revolution, Al-Fotouh has been trying to appeal to Egypt’s liberals and secularists.  He says he’s still a member of the Brotherhood at heart, but wants a state where religion doesn’t drive all policy.  It’s possible Al-Fotouh has a change of heart.  Many of the Tahrir Square revolutionaries are taking al-Fotouh at his word.  But is he really different, or just changing his tune to appeal to a broader base?   Al-Fotouh, like Mursi, speaks about maintaining good relations with world powers, including the United States.  During his campaign, however, Al-Fotouh called Israel “an enemy state.”  Al-Fotouh is also now backed by hardline Islamists known as Salafists who want to live in a society modeled on the life of the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century.  The Salafists – many of them still followers of al-Fotouh’s old group, the Gamaa Islamiya --  want to roll back rights for woman and Christians. Critics say al-Fotouh is trying to be a candidate for everyone, telling revolutionaries and secularists he’s become one of them, while also appealing hardcore Islamists. He has tried to appeal to Christians and women by promising that he will consider appointing one of them vice president should he win. A victory for al-Fotouh would be a win for Islamists.  Is he still member of the Muslim brotherhood in disguise?  Would he make peace with the Brotherhood and return to their fold if he became president?  Al-Fotouh likes to say Turkey is example Egypt could follow with an Islamist leader, but without Islamic fundamentalists deciding how people should live their daily lives.  Critics say its sounds good, but that Egyptian Islamists are much more radical than their Turkish counterparts and that it’s hard to imagine that after decades as a dedicated member of the Brotherhood that al-Fotouh could really have changed fundamentally.  The questions about al-Fotouh’s true beliefs are unlikely to become clear unless he wins the election. 

    Video: A new role for women in post-Mubarak Egypt

     

    Amer Moussa: Moussa is the 76-year-old former Egyptian foreign minister and secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League.  He is a seasoned and internationally respected statesman.  He’s well known and generally popular in Washington.  Moussa is presenting himself as a steady hand, the candidate who can maintain Egypt’s international relations and not drive the country into isolation or deep into the fold of the Muslim world.  Moussa has said publicly he has no intention of changing or eradicating the Camp David accords with Israel.  He is dedicated to close ties with the United States.  Moussa’s main problem is his association with the former Mubarak regime.  Even though he wasn’t involved in the crackdown and killing of activists during the revolution, he was a key Mubarak associate for decades.  Critics call Moussa part of the “fulool,” a word that means “remnants.”  It is a disparaging term.  It is almost like rubbish or trash.  Critics say Moussa is just another fulool of the Mubarak regime that the revolution swept away.  Moussa’s biggest rivals are the Islamic candidates Mursi and al-Fotouh.  Moussa’s Islamist opponents have tried to depict him as a drinker who is close to Israel and the United States.  Moussa believes Egypt is at a crossroads and that voters can pick him to promote stability or Islamists to change the country’s course in a precarious new direction.

    Ahmed Shafiq: Shafiq is the ultimate “fulool” candidate.  He was the last prime minister appointed by Mubarak.  Shafiq was, like Mubarak, an air force commander.  Shafiq still defends Mubarak.  Shafiq is presenting himself as “Mr. Security.”  After the revolution Egyptian police were discredited.  They were seen as the henchmen of the Mubarak regime.  For the past year, the police have largely been absent from the streets.  With the police gone, murder, rape, kidnappings, car-jackings and antiquities’ theft have all risen dramatically.  Shafiq says he’ll restore order in 24 hours.  He’s the strongman candidate.  His message appeals to some Egyptians fed up with the deteriorating security situation.  Critics say the revolution replaced one dictator in Mubarak and that electing Shafiq would simply be bringing in another one.

    Hamdeen Sabahi.  Hamdeen Sabahi is popularist.  He appeals to the country’s poor.  Economically, Sabahi is a socialist who sees Egypt’s greatest strength as its legions of rural and urban poor.  Politically, Sabahi is a Nasserist, or a follower of the tradition of the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.  Nasser was a champion of Arab unity and a believer in pan-Arab power.  Nasser firmly believed that if Arabs were to unite, they could become a powerful economic and political bloc that could break free of a Middle East many Egyptians see as dominated by American and Israeli interests.  Nasser was no friend of the United States.  He aligned Egypt with the communist Soviet Union and launched a failed war against Israel.  When Nasser died, his successor Anwar Sadat re-orientated Egypt’s economic and politics policies by building close ties with Washington and forging a peace treaty with Israel.  Sabahi’s victory could mean that Egypt’s four-decade-long Western orientation would shift again, reverting to a populist form of pan-Arabism.   Sabahi has had a recent surge in popularity and was recently supported by 400 famous Egyptian actors, artists, writers and journalists.

    On the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime, hundreds of thousands poured into the revolution's symbolic center, Cairo's Tahrir Square. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    The likely outcome
    What’s likely to happen?  None of the five candidates are likely to win an outright majority when voting closes at 8 p.m. Cairo time on Thursday evening.  To win, a candidate needs more than 50 percent of the votes.  It’s widely expected, however, that each of the five leading candidates will win between 10 to 30 percent of the vote.  Mursi for example could win 20-25 percent, Moussa might take another 20 percent, Al-Fotouh perhaps 20 percent and so on.  Since none of the candidates would have the more than the fifty percent needed for a victory, there would be a run-off. 

    The run-off would work as follows:  The two candidates with the highest number of votes -- say Mursi with 25 percent and perhaps Moussa or al-Fotouh or Sabahi with another 20 percent or so – would face each other.  The run-off election would take place on June 16-17.  The winner of the runoff would become Egypt’s next president, starting his four-year term starting on June 30.  Once the new president assumes office, the military council – the leadership committee of generals that has been administering Egypt since the revolution – would dissolve.  Egypt’s first democratically elected president in its history would then run the country and its powerful, US-armed military.

    Who’s winning?
    Opinion polls have been all over the map.  Many polls put Moussa ahead.  The Brotherhood says Mursi is in the lead.  The polls do not seem reliable.  Political analysts I’ve spoken to believe Mursi, even though he’s uncharismatic, is likely to win enough votes to secure a place in the run-off.  After all, the Brotherhood has a million activists get out the vote, a grassroots support base that’s unmatched by any other candidate.  The run-off, according to some analysts, would therefore be between the Brotherhood’s Mursi and someone else.  It’s anyone’s guess who that someone else might be.  That’s when Egyptians’ will have to make an incredibly important choice.  Assuming Mursi is a candidate in the run-off, analysts say the tale of the tape might be like this.

    If the run off is between the Brotherhood’s Mursi vs Amer Moussa or Ahmed Shafiq, analysts predict Mursi would win.  Moussa and Shafiq would simply be too “fulool,” not different enough from Mubarak.  It’s possible, however, the voters could have a change of heart and vote for the promise of stability over the certainty of change.  It’s very hard to predict. 

    If the match up, however, is Mursi vs al-Fotouh or Sabahi, analysts say it’s likely Mursi would lose.  The Brotherhood already controls parliament and voters might fear giving the long-banned group too much power.  Again, no one really knows.  What’s certain is that this is a critical time for Egypt, the Arab world, Israel and the United States.  Egypt is at a crossroads.  The path Egyptians chose is important.  Egypt is the most populous Arab nation, the seat of Sunni Islamic doctrine and has tremendous political, religious and social influence on the rest of the region.  For better or worse, it will lead the rest of the Middle East by example.  So goes Egypt, so goes the region.

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    Richard Engel is Chief Foreign Correspondent of NBC News