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| Friday's anti-Brotherhood's protests |
Around 3,000 demonstrators gathered on Friday, 24 August, in front of
Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, protesting against the so called “Brotherhoodisation”
of Egypt and Morsy’s rule. Among the protesters were liberals, supporters of
Egypt’s military and activists who were calling for an end of the rule of
Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsy, the first democratically elected
President of Egypt since the country’s long standing leader Hosni Mubarak was
ousted after January 25 Revolution in 2011.
The calls for the organizing the nationwide protests against Muslim
Brotherhood’s rule had been spreading in Egypt via social networking during the
last weeks. Tawfiq Okasha, controversial Egyptian public figure, and Mohamed
Abou-Hamed, former MP, were among the first public figures calling for the
protests.
The anti-Brotherhood sentiments have been building in Egypt after
several latest key-decisions made by Mohamed Morsy and some developments in the
country. Thus, the fears over Muslim Brotherhood’s total control over all the
state’s institutions led to the protests of some Egyptian journalists,
reporters, columnists and writers, after Morsy’s administration’s attempts to
fully control state-owned publications and media sources.
For example, the latest arrest and detention of Egyptian journalist and
editor-in-chief of the private newspaper Al-Dostour Islam Afify provoked the
wave of anger and criticism in Egyptian society. Islam Afify was accused of
publication the false information and insulting Egyptian President Mohamed
Morsy. The issue of Al-Dostour was confiscated, and Islam Afify was put on
trial. After Morsy’s yesterdays decision which cancelled the ruling about the temporally
detention of journalists Afify was released.
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| Anti-Brotherhood protests |
Another example is the case of the controversial public figure Tawfiq
Okasha, who also faced the charges of insulting the President of Egypt and
inciting violence against him. Okasha’s Faraeen television channel was
suspended for a month.
The death of 16 Egyptian border guards on 5 August and the following
developments also left a lot of Egyptians angry, especially after Morsy retired
the high ranking military officials. Despite the previous calls against SCAF in
Egyptian society, the latest move made by Morsy was considered by many being
another attempt of Muslim Brotherhood to monopolize the power in the country.
The protests among Egyptians transformed into anti-Brotherhood’s revolts.
Friday’s protests were expected to be massive, but they were attended by
several thousand people only, mostly liberals, activists and military
supporters. There were several marches organized across Cairo and in some
another Egypt’s governorates and cities. The Presidential Palace in Heliopolis
and district Misr El-Gedid were the focal point of the planned demonstrations.
Another demonstration was heading from the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier in
Nasr City district.
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| Egypt's security during the Friday anti-Brotherhood's protests |
Heavy security was present in Cairo’s streets during the day. The roads
leading to the Presidential Palace were blocked, with the traffic regulated by
security officers. Dozens of security trucks were also stationed around the
palace and in the neighboring streets, with hundreds of state’s security
troops. The streets where the palace is situated were blocked with the barbed
wire. But despite the tense atmosphere in the city the situation around the
palace remained calm after the first demonstrations started.
The protests were planned to start after the Friday noon prayers, but
only the journalists and security forces were present in the area at the
midday, with the protests started later, at around 2 p.m. Egyptian time.
Security measures stopped the protesters from entering the palace
streets, but later, thousands of protesters arrived from Abbasiya Square and
Madinet Nasr.
The demonstrations were led by former MP Mohamed Abou-Hamed. The numbers
of protesters notably decreased in the evening.
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| Egypt's security forces blocking the streets close to the Presidential palace in Cairo |
The protesters presence outside Cairo was limited, despite the calls for
the nationwide protests in Egypt. Thus, some violent clashes erupted between
the residents and the anti-Brotherhood protesters in the coastal city of
Alexandria. Mansoura, the Nile-Delta city between Cairo and Alexandria, also
witnessed only small protests.
During the Friday’s demonstration the protesters were holding the
banners and Egyptian flags and were chanting against Muslim Brotherhood and
Mohamed Morsy, who was called a traitor of Egypt’s revolution and accused of
trying to seize and monopolize power in all the sectors of Egyptian political
spectrum. Morsy was also accused of not being loyal to Egyptian people and
defending the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm FJP (Freedom
and Justice Party) rather than making the people of Egypt his first priority.
The people chanted “Down with the rule of Muslim Brotherhood and Morsy” and “We
want a civil state, not a Brotherhood’s state”. The main demand of the
protesters was an end of Muslim Brotherhood’s domination in all the spheres of
Egyptian political life.
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| Protesters holding the banners "Leave" |
There was also anger among the protesters over Mohamed Morsy’s decision to
free some Islamist prisoners, while a lot of revolutionary activists still
remain detained and stand on military trial, despite Morsy’s promises to free
all the revolutionary prisoners and stop the practice of military trials for
civilians. Almost nothing from Morsy’s promises made during his election’s
campaign was fulfilled.
Morsy was also criticized by the protesters for attempting to overrule
the decision of HCC (High Constitutional Court) to dissolve the Parliament and
to let the Islamists to impose their impact on the process of writing Egypt’s
new Constitution. Demonstrators were calling for the “transparent democracy”,
as they want to know the reasons standing behind the decisions made by
President and Egypt’s authorities.
Muslim Brotherhood was also accused of showing their disrespect to
another political parties and forces of Egypt. There were also the calls for
the bigger protests against Mohamed Morsy and Muslim Brotherhood during the
next months.
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| Protesters during Friday's anti-Brotherhood's rally |
Some protestors even called for immediate dissolution of Muslim
Brotherhood and FJP for lying and using religion to gain more support.
There were also some reports about the clashes happened close to Tahrir
Square in Cairo. MENA said Cairo’s hospitals received four people injured
during the clashes. They were reportedly shot by rubber bullets in the area
close to Tahrir Square. Later a few clashes broke out between the protesters
and the supporters of Morsy and Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health reported there were ten people injured during
the Friday protests, and four among them were hospitalized.
The demonstrations on Friday, 24 August, were
not that massive as it was expected. Only a few thousand protesters attended
them, and the rally didn’t have a huge impact on the Egyptian political
situation, but it signaled about the important changes within the Egyptian
society, with more vocal dissatisfaction with the rule of Islamists.
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