Morsi, who came to power in the country’s first democratic elections this summer, is also scheduled to meet with senior judges on Monday to calm their fears about giving himself immunity from judicial review until a new parliament is elected, a move that had prompted many judges and prosecutors to boycott courts around the country. But the country’s top judicial body, the Supreme Judiciary Council, asked them to return to work on Monday, saying it would try to convince Morsi to limit his immunity to “sovereign matters” like declaring war. The courts, which already dissolved the elected lower house of parliament, had also reportedly been considering doing the same to the heavily Islamist assembly currently writing Egypt’s new constitution — a situation that justified Morsi’s move, his supporters say.

Opposition leaders, including prominent Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, have refused to cooperate with Morsi until the edicts have been scrapped. “He grabbed full power for himself,” he told SPIEGEL in an interview published on Monday. “Not even the pharaohs had so much authority, to say nothing of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak. This is a catastrophe — it a mockery of the revolution that brought him to power and an act that leads one to fear the worst.” Fractious opposition groups are also reportedly attempting to band together to increase resistance to Morsi’s edicts, widely seen as an unprecedented power grab.

The move came directly after Morsi was praised for helping to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, ending eight days of violence in the Gaza Strip. German commentators on Monday say that Morsi has used that momentum to sieze greater powers, which could endanger Egypt’s transition to democracy.

Read the Rest via German Media: Morsi Power Grab A Move Towar Egyptian Islamization – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

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