| The Copts and other non-believers, of course, won't be considered 'Egyptian'... |
Mursi, who won a run-off election earlier this month, was received with applause by the tens of thousands of people gathered in the birthplace of the revolt that overthrew his predecessor Hosni Mubarak last year. He promised a "civilian state" and praised "the square of the revolution, the square of freedom," in what he called an address to "the free world, Arabs, Muslims... the Muslims of Egypt, Christians of Egypt."
Mursi symbolically swore himself in before the crowd, saying: "I swear to preserve the republican system... and to preserve the independence" of Egypt.
In his speech Mursi, whose election has raised concerns among Egypt's sizeable Coptic Christian community, served the United States with advance warning that his politics will be markedly different from those of his ousted predecessor.
| No, really? |
"I will do everything in my power to secure freedom for... detainees, including Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman," Mursi said in his address to the throng packing the hub of the 2011 revolution.
| Champ would lose New York in November if he did that, so don't look for it .. until December. |
After taking the oath, Mursi will have to contend with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by Mubarak's longtime defense minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, that will retain broad powers after it formally transfers power. The liberal Wafd newspaper reported that Tantawi will remain defense minister in the new government.
| And that's the real power... |