Egyptian opposition forces rallied across the country Tuesday and into early Wednesday in the biggest show of dissent against the country's first democratically elected leader since he precipitated a political crisis last week with an apparent bid to assume near-absolute power.
A loose coalition of rights groups, liberals and secularists poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square and other public spaces, urging President Mohammed Morsi to rescind a decree he issued Thursday that granted him the authority to legislate without judicial oversight.
But many also used the mass protests as an opportunity to call for the downfall of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers, underscoring a complex political conflict in the newly democratic country that runs far deeper than the move that Morsi's opponents have labeled a power grab.