Egypt's Continuing Revolution: Month 14, Week 1, Day 6.

Today in Egypt the interim Minister for Information Dorreya Sharaf El-Din made a short televised statement in which she announced that the Interior Ministry had been authorised by the government of national unity to end the Muslim Brotherhood's protest camps at both the Rabea al-Adaweya Mosque in Nasr city Cairo and at Al-Nahda Square in New Cairo city, Cairo. Describing the situation at the protest camps as dangerous and continuing Sharaf El-Din went on to cite the terrorism and traffic congestion associated with the camps as reasons why the protest camps simply could not be allowed to continue giving the current threat to Egypt's national security.

I couldn't agree more with the assessment that the Brotherhood's camps represent a threat to Egypt's national security because the protest marches that resulted in the deaths of 36 people on the night of July 5-6th (5-6/7/13), the protest march that led to the deaths of 42 people outside Cairo's Republican Guard HQ on July 8th (8/7/13), the protest march that led to the deaths of 7 people on July 15th (15/7/13) and the protest march that lead to the deaths of 80 people on July 27th (27/7/13) all originated from the Muslim Brotherhood's Rabea al-Adweya protest camp. Added to that the Brotherhood have been attempting to enforce their own style of Sharia influenced street justice in the camps and the surrounding streets. As result in the last four days 12 bodies have been found close to the camp apparently tortured to death and there have been multiple complaints - both official and unofficial - from local residents of people being kidnapped and tortured by Muslim Brotherhood members who have been cutting off fingers and hands of people suspected of minor crimes such as petty theft. Finally the protest camps have created a culture of insecurity that has forced governments around the world to issue instructions advising their citizens to avoid travelling to Egypt. This has obviously had a devastating effect of Egypt's vital tourism industry with there said to be a 55% drop in visitor numbers at Cairo airport alone.

Most importantly though the Brotherhood's protest camps have been delaying the nations transition back to the democracy that so many have fought so hard to achieve. For example I should be sitting here talking about reforms need to be made to the constitution or how the economy needs to be modernised but instead I and everybody else keep being forced back into talking about the latest round of violence and killing triggered by the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore it is clear that the time has come for the Brotherhood's protests to end. The only question is how to go about it?

Obviously I would much prefer that the Brotherhood voluntarily ended their protests and joined in with the political process. However it is quite clear that it not going to happen in turn forcing the military to act. I think it is obvious that the military should wait until after Eid al-Fitr before breaking up the protest camps. Then rather then simply trying to eradicate the camps by arresting all those attending the military should first set up an alternative, less disruptive site for the protests to continue. As I've said before I don't have the local knowledge of Cairo to designate an alternative site but from a quick look at maps and aeriel photographs Cairo's International Stadium and the Paradise Gardens both seem obvious locations. That is because they allow the Brotherhood to continue to protest if they so wish but they also allow the military to easily contain those protests in order to make sure that they don't spill out to affect local residents and into protest marches that lead to more violent confrontations with the military. I appreciate though that both the International Stadium and the Paradise Gardens are important public areas in Cairo that no-one wants to see damaged or disrupted by lenghty protests. Therefore as alternative locations the area of apparent wasteland bordered El-Nasr Road, Youssef Abbas and Dr Abd El-Aziz El-Shennawy close to the Al-Ahazr university or the vast stretches of waste land to the south of Nasr city close to the Muslim Brotherhood's HQ seem viable alternatives although the military will need to erect fencing and barricades in order to contain the protest site.

Once an alternative protest site has been nominated and prepared the Brotherhood protesters should then be given a deadline of a week or so to voluntarily move to the new site. If they refuse the military should then blockade the Rabea a-Adaweya and Al-Nahda Square protests preventing new people from entering but allowing people to leave. They then have the option of escalating to stopping supplies of food, water and electricity entering the site. Finally if the Brotherhood supporters still fail to transfer to the new protest site the military will have to move in slowly and gently breaking the crowd up into smaller sections. The protesters in the targeted section will obviously be arrested if they engage in violence but if they don't should be placed onto buses and transported by the military to the new protest site. From there they will be able to either continuing protesting peacefully or return home.

(Originall Posted) 20:55 on 31/7/13.