Egypt elects Islamic president who will impose Sharia law — many concerned about mixing of politics and religion, loss of rights

Egypt's election commission announced today that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, has become the first post-revolution president. Morsi received over 13 million or 51.7% of the votes, while his main rival, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, got 48.27%.

Russia Today reports that this is the first time that an Islamist has taken the reigns of power in Egypt.

The crowd gathered at Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted into applause with the announcement.  Those gathered were mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood and have been camped out as early as Tuesday.

Morsi will reinstate Sharia law.  Although he represents a large number of Egyptians, many are afraid of what he will bring with him, such as mixing religion with politics.  They are also concerned about losing privileges that they had under the Mubarak regime.

Not knowing how supporters of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq will react, security is on high alert.  The police have been deployed in large numbers and have been given the order to shoot if attacked.  Banks and companies around Tahrir Square have closed shop.  Hotels have boarded up their windows for fear of looting and clashes.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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