Posted on 07/04/2013 5:21:08 AM PDT by bert
As the army takes control of Egypt, demonstrators in favour of the ousted president feel isolated and ignored.
Cairo - The fireworks celebrating Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s removal by the military are visible a few kilometres away, where thousands of his supporters are holding a sit-in, a protest they plan to continue until Morsi is reinstated.
Hours after his removal, the mood at the rally, outside a mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City neighbourhood, was sombre and confused.
Supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood wondered how the man who last year became Egypt’s first democratically-elected president could be ousted so ignominiously.
Fear hovered over the rally, too, with many Brotherhood members wondering if Morsi’s removal would portend a wider crackdown on the once-banned group.
The army has encircled the site of the protest, blocking main roads with barbed wire and armoured vehicles; helicopters buzz overhead, often to jeers and curses from below. One man spat at a helicopter, dismissing its pilots as traitors.
Rumours were rife in the early hours of Thursday morning that the army would soon raid the camp and detain the protesters. One man brought up the memory of 1954, when then-president Gamal Abdel Nasser crushed the Brotherhood, jailing thousands of its members.
"What the army did, they have unleashed hell on Egypt," said Mahdi Asfar, an elderly religious scholar at the sit-in. "The Islamists will not be able to stand back, because we are not going back to jail."
Determination waning
Many of these protesters have been on the streets since Friday, when a coalition of pro-Morsi political groups organised a rally under the banner "legitimacy is a red line." The mood on Friday was defiant, with large crowds convinced that Morsi could survive nationwide anti-government protests that were scheduled for Sunday.
As the week wore on, and the scope of the protests became clear, the mood grew increasingly tense. Security checks increased; protesters warned of impending raids by "thugs."
Even on Wednesday, just hours before the army’s deadline for Morsi to resolve the political crisis, there was still a sense of determination in the camp.
Leading members of the Brotherhood and their allies held a fiery press conference in which they demanded that the military back down. "We are the constitution, we are freedom, we are legitimacy, we are the revolution," said Essam el-Erian, the vice chairman of the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party.
Determination had morphed into exhaustion by early Thursday morning.
Those who were still awake seemed taken aback by the day’s events, and blamed the overthrow on members of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
"The problems that people could see, like the fuel crisis, stopped a day or two ago. The stock market rose on the 30th of June by 5 percent. How is everything solved moments before he leaves? I believe it is due to Mubarak and the deep state," said Sharif Ahmed, a businessman.
One speaker railed against a group of prominent political figures, dubbing them thugs. Most of his targets were predictable - Hamdeen Sabbahi, for example, an opposition leader who recently has tried to align himself with the army.
He also singled out Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand mufti of Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of Sunni learning in Egypt. Tayeb threw his support behind the coup, sitting in the audience while Defence Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced Morsi’s ouster and then adding brief remarks of his own.
With most of the media’s attention on the jubilant scenes in Tahrir Square and the presidential palace, many people at the sit-in said they felt ignored.
Journalists arrested
Their isolation was compounded by the shutdown of the Brotherhood’s television channel, Misr 25, and several other religious channels; Brotherhood officials said journalists working for their channel were arrested. “They don’t want people to see what is happening here,” Ahmed said.
Morsi himself is under house arrest, according to top Brotherhood officials, and has no access to the media; he resorted to YouTube to release a brief message after his ouster was announced.
More than a dozen other members of the movement have been arrested as well, according to security officials, a speedy move that to many here highlighted the government’s longstanding hostility towards the Brotherhood and other Islamist movements.
“Morsi’s people have been arrested already. The top people of Mubarak, they’re still out there, more than a year later,” said Ismail Abdel Aziz, a doctor. “The security forces have been sleeping for all this time. And now suddenly they wake up?”
Left unsaid here, or at least understated, is the mortal fear that is coming over this bunch of thugs. These are the dunderheads who were being protected by Morsi and were doing all the raping, Coptic killing, Christian church burning, and the rest that has kept tourists away from the pyramids, etc. The Egyptian economy is in the terlet thanx to these 12th century geniuses. Without Morsi’s Sharia protection and even encouragement this bunch will probably start getting what they got coming——who could imagine there might be some retribution and grudge settling. The Army surrounding this mob might be very well protecting them in the short term because the big crowd downtown knows who caused the problems. Didn’t see it anyplace on western news but numerous times on Euro and Arab news the Rebel crowd were using banners that had a Cristian cross at the points of a Moslem crescent moon-——pretty telling!
Maybe the State Dept could send a team of grief counselors to Egypt to console the Morsi supporters. I could see that degenerating into a suicide mission.
Bump
Maybe if they try to assassinate the interim President like they did Abdul Nasser, or like they successfully did Anwar Sadat after he freed them, they’ll get the attention they so richly deserve.
More like despondent scenes in the rooms of liberals watching...
We have some really witty FReepers. Lol
We buy the Egyptian Army more than enough ammunition to take care of “pro Morsi rallies”
“Obama Inc is the greatest destabilizing force on the planet today.”
For those that wonder why Obama has supported the Muslim Brotherhood, it appears they share the same goals.
“According to the Washington Post, U.S. Muslim Brotherhood supporters “make up the U.S. Islamic community’s most organized force” by running hundreds of mosques, businesses ventures, promoting civic activities and setting up American Islamic organizations to defend and promote Islam.[102] In 1963, the U.S. chapter of Muslim Brotherhood was started by activists involved with the Muslim Students Association (MSA).[16] U.S. supporters of the Brotherhood also started other organizations including: North American Islamic Trust in 1971, the Islamic Society of North America in 1981, the American Muslim Council in 1990, the Muslim American Society in 1992 and the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the 1980s.[16]
The aims of the Brotherhood in America are:
“The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.
—’An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,’ 1981”
from WikiPedia - Muslim Brotherhood
No worries, they are fainting but the 0bamessiah will revive them with bottled water.
Substitute Nazi or KKK or Maoists for Muslim Brotherhood and think about how allowing them to campaign is a good idea.
Sometimes decent people just have to take out the trash that is stinking up the place.
A few dozen dead MB would be martyrs ;a few ten thousands dead would be an Egyptian housecleaning just like the King of Jordan was forced to do back in the 60s/70s, else the scum take over that nation.
The voters already voted and elected Morsi.
Now they have buyer’s remorse.
We don’t know that. We know that there were demonstrations against Morsi, but we cannot be sure that Morsi voters changed their mind. More likely, the majority is still with Morsi.
....Nice watch Bro....I thought that only portable sundials were allowed for islamics.
I'm better with that than Islamic rule, who mutilate young girls; treat women as possessions; kill women for the slightest family dishonor reason; vow to kill anyone who don't believe in their cult or sub-cults; blow up innocents; shoot innocents; and want the awful (political/theocracy) Sharia Law in place around the world. Sorry for the run on sentence.
My dream is that the Sunni and Shiite tribes concentrated on each other kill each other. Now that North America is becoming a net exporter of oil and natural gas and develop more every day, I await the day we can tell the Saudis to stick their oil where the doesn't shine. (p)Other than the United Arab Emigrate that has been mostly secular and highly productive (think Dubai), the rest can go back to humping camels.
I now have hope for Egypt since the coup. Since the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi has been disposed, I can actually see a future for them, also. Yes, the radical Islamists will continue killing, but with a strong central Egyptian government backed my the military, they will have no problem with pounding those savages back into the 7th century they so desire. The secularists in Egypt are not constrained by political correctness, as is our nation.
And once we produce more oil, your king that you bow to in Saudi Arabia is going to be crying in his oil that the world no longer depends on. North America is becoming a net exporter as much as you don't like it.
I'm feeling good right now with current events. You, Obambi are still leading from the rear. Bet you didn't see a REAL Arab Spring happening in Egypt. Of course not, you and your SOS were playing while your "Brotherhood" lost out. Good!
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