Tahrir Revisited

by Daniel Siryoti and David Baron

Thousands stream to Tahrir Square, and they are just the tip of the iceberg • A million-person march today will call for Morsi's ouster • Report: The president and his family have been moved to a safe house • Eight citizens have already been killed.

Protesters set fire to items taken from President Mohammed Morsi's party headquarters | Photo credit: AFP

 

The Israeli flag is set on fire opposite the Defense Ministry in Cairo

Photo credit: AP

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians flooded into Cairo's Tahrir Square and other focal points throughout Egypt on Saturday night, in what is expected to turn into a mass demonstration against President Mohammed Morsi's regime. 

On the Muslim Brotherhood president's first anniversary in office, millions in Egypt are calling for his ouster. In light of violence by the opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood has already smuggled the president away to a highly secured presidential guard facility.

Violence has begun to consume Egypt. Over the weekend at least eight people were killed during demonstrations, one of them an American Jew. There were violent clashes in the districts of Dakahlia and Beheira in the Nile River Delta. The offices of the Freedom and Justice Party -- the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood were set on fire in the cities of Alexandria and Dakahlia. Demonstrators sowed destruction at the movement's branches in Cairo and other cities.

The newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt Independent) cited senior officials in Morsi's office saying that the decision to hide the president was made after receiving "credible information" that anti-Morsi demonstrators intended to march toward the Presidential Palace Al-Ithadia in central Cairo and attempt a break-in. Morsi wasn't the only one taking precautions. Thousands of Egyptians started to prepare for the worst-case scenario, hoarding products and fuel.

"I bought everything I need, from noodles to vegetables, and I filled the house so that I can sit in my living room and watch the revolution on television," Jihan Muhammed, 40, told the Al-Ahram newspaper. "I voted for Morsi, but I regret it. I never thought that the [Muslim Brotherhood] would starve the people in this way."

Hassan Darwish, 70, a retired architect, will go out to demonstrate on Sunday for the first time in his life.

"I no longer feel secure," he said, "I hardly sleep. I am always worried about my daughters and grandchildren. I wake up in the middle of the night to check if the door and windows are locked."

Aware of possible impending danger, the army brass has also placed itself on maximum readiness. The Egyptian chief of staff published a statement ahead of the demonstrations warning that the military would intervene should the sides lose control and that forces had been spread throughout the country in order to "protect citizens and sites of national importance from a strategic and tourist point of view." Egypt's Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke earlier of the army's "moral responsibility to prevent Egypt from declining into the darkness of political violence."

As of Saturday night, an Internet petition for Morsi's ouster had gathered 22 million signatures, seven million more than the target set by its initiators. Morsi received Fifteen million votes in the elections for president. According to the Egyptian opposition -- an unwitting coalition of liberals, extremist Muslims and supporters of the previous regime -- Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have failed in running Egypt. Even worse, the demonstrators claim that the Brotherhood regime brought Egypt to the brink of civil war.

Meanwhile, the Islamists are not resting on their laurels. Thousands sat opposite the Rabia Al Adawiyya mosque in Cairo for the second day in a row on Sunday protesting what they called "the disruption of democracy and legitimate elections by the opposition."

Over the course of the weekend, barbed wire was stretched around shopping malls, stores and office buildings. Most banks, companies and businesses recommended to their workers to take a vacation day so as not to endanger their safety and security. For Egypt, Sunday will be the big test.

Daniel Siryoti and David Baron  

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=10361  

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.