Egypt Unrest: The rise and fall of Mohamed Morsi

New Delhi: Egypt's first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled in a coup on Wednesday, is a veteran Islamist who is no stranger to underground politics having broken out of jail just 30 months ago. Morsi became President of Egypt little more than a year ago, on June 30th, 2012. Once he assumed office, he resigned as chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Muhammad Morsi is an academic, a professor and, by training, an engineer from a humble background. He studied at both the University of Cairo – the breeding ground of Muslim Brotherhood founders – and the University of Southern California. He served in the Egyptian parliament from 2000 to 2005 as an Independent candidate, but, in reality, representing the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. As Egypt descended into revolution in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood established the Freedom and Justice Party and installed Morsi at its helm. Once elected President, the bespectacled, 62-year-old professor quickly granted himself almost unlimited power to rule and legislate. In doing so, he alienated a large section of the Egyptian populace. The ‘Arab Spring', there should be no denying, has been usurped by Islamists, hoping to fulfill their long-held ambition to topple the autocratic, secularist rulers of the Middle East and Maghreb and replace them with Islamist theocracies. Millions took to the streets on Sunday in response to a grassroots campaign accusing him of breaking his promise to be a "president for all Egyptians" and of failing the ideals of the 2011 revolution. Morsi remained defiant to the end, insisting on the legitimacy of his election in June last year when he defeated several of the main opposition leaders. But he had to do so through pre-recorded messages posted on the Internet or aired by independent television channels. It was a far cry from the rapturous reception he was given by adoring crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square less than 13 months ago, when he was feted as a revolutionary champion. Then his informal style and colloquial speech earned plaudits from a public estranged by the stiff, pharaonesque aloofness of Mubarak-era officials. Failing to pacify the Egyptian people has contributed to the continued destruction of the country's vital tourist industry. But during his presidency he made good on his election promise to leave Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel untouched despite his gut sympathy with the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza. He also kept up Cairo's longstanding defence ties with Washington which earn it $1.3 billion (1 billion euros) a year in US military aid, assistance called into doubt by President Barack Obama after Wednesday's coup. Morsi received a PhD from the University of Southern California, where he was also an assistant professor in 1982. He had graduated with an engineering degree from Cairo University in 1975. Morsi is married, with five children and three grandchildren.