Egypt Islamists mass in Cairo as tensions mount

By C. J. Refsland on June 22, 2013 • ( 0 )

AFP – Tens of thousands of Egyptian Islamists gathered for a show of strength in Cairo on Friday ahead of planned opposition protests against President Mohamed Morsi, highlighting the tense political divide in the Arab world’s most populous state.

Carrying Egyptian flags and portraits of the president, they flooded into the large square outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the Nasr City neighbourhood and into the surrounding avenues.

Islamist groups led by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, had called for the rally ahead of planned June 30 protests to demand an early presidential election.

Morsi has been in office for just one year.

Inside the mosque, worshippers finished their prayers and broke out into chants of “Morsi is a president for all Egyptians” before joining the crowds on the streets.

The turnout, they said, was proof that Morsi enjoyed the support of the Egyptian people.

“We are here in such huge numbers so that the secularists don’t think we are a minority… We are capable of protecting legitimacy and Sharia (Islamic law),” said Hamida Bakkout, 43, holding a picture of Morsi.

Omar Mostafa, 18, who had come from the Nile Delta province of Beheira, said “this is a message that there are many of us behind the president. We don’t care about the mobilisation of the opposition.”

Many supporters had been bussed in to Cairo for the event, AFP reporters said.

The Islamists accuse the opposition of being remnants of the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and of seeking to sow chaos.

“Democratically elected presidents are never removed through protests,” Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said.

A campaign dubbed Tamarod (rebellion in Arabic) first called for the anti-Morsi rally to coincide with the first anniversary of his becoming president.

Morsi was elected after a military-led transition that followed the ouster of long-time president Mubarak in a 2011 popular uprising.

As a senior leader of the Brotherhood, banned but tolerated under Mubarak, Morsi vowed to be a president “to all Egyptians” in a bid to allay fears of partisanship.

But since taking office, he has squared off with the nation’s judiciary, media, police and most recently artists, and his opponents accuse him of giving the Islamists a monopoly over public institutions.