Throughout the past week the Muslim Brotherhood have continued their
protest camp in Nasr city and held protest marches in Cairo in an
attempt to achieve the objectives they set for themselves at last
Friday's (19/7/13) "Second Crossing" protests but failed to achieve due
to a lack of support. Yesterday they called for a day of
"Discernment/Al-Furqan" protest. Marking the 17th day of Ramadan this
celebrates the 17th Century "Great Battle of Badr" in which Muslims
although outnumbered won a military victory against non-believers. Apart
from being a call to violence this was supposed to be the Brotherhood
asking Egyptians to choose between good (Islam as the Brotherhood see
it) and bad (democracy as the Brotherhood see it).
Friday was also the day that Egypt's military asked people to take to
the streets to show support for it's war against terrorism predominately
in the Sinai. With nine of Egypt's largest TV networks showing their
support for the military by postponing popular drama shows and soap
operas in order to encourage people to attend the protests the Egyptian
people overwhelmingly chose to support democracy over the Brotherhood.
Estimates show that roughly 32 million of Egypt's 80 million population
came out in support of the military nationally with 20-25 million of
those taking to the streets of Cairo alone. Unfortunately some of those
protesting took the military's call as an instruction to attack the
Muslim Brotherhood directly. So in Damietta Brotherhood supporters were
attacked by local residents while they were awaiting transport to the
Nasr city demonstration leaving 10 people injured. In the Shubra suburb
of Cairo a Brotherhood protests numbering a few hundred was attacked by
local residents again leaving around 10 injured. The worst of the
violence though occurred in Egypt's second city Alexandria where
pro-democracy and Brotherhood protest marches met sparking of a day of
rioting that left 5 dead and 91 injured.
The Brotherhood themselves were far from peaceful though. Not only did
they fight back in Alexandria and Shubra in Cairo several members were
arrested in possession of weapons including firearms, a group of
pro-democracy demonstrators were attacked by armed Brotherhood
supporters as they made their way to Tahrir Square. Most provocatively
though the Brotherhood protesters decided to storm the International
Garden in Nasr city and pledged to occupy it until Morsi is reinstated
in a move that infuriated local residents. Also while not directly
attributed to the Brotherhood Islamist terrorists in the Sinai carried
out gun, RPG and bomb attacks across Sheikh Zuwayed co-ordinated to
target police and civilians as they sat down to break fast at Iftar.
Fortunately no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported so far.
With public anger towards the Brotherhood demonstration in Nasr city
rising Egypt's interim Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim appear on
television to reassure people that the Nasr city demonstration would
soon cleared in a legal manner following a vast number of complaints
from local residents. This was a clear attempt to calm the situation by
stopping residents taking matters into their own hands by assuring them
that the government would take action soon. Unfortunately the Muslim
Brotherhood saw this as an opportunity to once again portray themselves
as the oppressed victims of a military dictatorship and started to spin
the Interior Ministers comments as a threat.
Just before dawn today Brotherhood supporters decided to march out of
Nasr city towards the October 6th bridge and Tahrir Square in an attempt
to provoke or attack their opponents. This was too much for local
residents and supporters who promptly attacked the Brotherhood march
causing a violent confrontation during which both sides exchanged
bricks, bottles and gunfire. Eventually the police/military intervened
to separate the two factions. The exact numbers killed and injured
during the confrontation are not yet known. Not all of those injured
sought help at official hospitals so although the Health Ministry's
figure of 29 killed and 649 injured is an accurate account of the people
it has treated it does not take into account all those injured. The
Muslim Brotherhood's estimate of 120 killed and more than 4000 injured
is simply a lie intended to portray themselves as victims of a massacre.
The figure that most people consider to be accurate is 70 dead and
around 1500 injured. The one thing that's known for sure is that 51 of
those injured were members of the police/military including two who are
in a critical condition after being shot in the head.
Obviously today most of Egypt is in shock following the incident with
some blaming the military and some blaming the Brotherhood. The one
thing that most people agree on though is that the violence has to stop.
That is everyone of course expect the Muslim Brotherhood who have today
already attempted to storm the Al-Azhar University in a clear attempt
to provoke another confrontation with the military/police. The one thing
that is clear to me though is that something has to be done to bring
the Muslim Brotherhood's Nasr city protest to an end.
I think the best way to achieve this is for the Brotherhood to agree to
move their protest to somewhere that is less disruptive. Primarily that
is because while they do not have the right to commit acts of violence
or disrupt the day to day running of the city I think that the
Brotherhood do have a right to protest. Beyond that while the
Brotherhood's demonstration is comparatively tiny it still numbers in
the tens of thousands. Arresting and imprisoning that many people is
going to be a logistical nightmare not to mention that internationally
it will lead to a lot of criticism for arbitrary detention and
domestically will help to fuel the Brotherhood's propaganda that they
are being oppressed.
Therefore I think it would be better to move the demonstration to a
public square or park where the Brotherhood can protest for as long as
they like without blocking roads and disrupting the lives of local
residents. If these protests were taking place in London, UK I would
suggest using Hyde Park but I don't have to local knowledge to suggest
somewhere similar in Cairo. That said if the Brotherhood refuse to
compromise by moving to the new location they will have to be removed
from Nasr city by force and if they choose to fight back some of them
may have to be killed.
(Originally Posted) 17:40 on 27/7/13.
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