CAIRO: Mass protests called by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood mostly failed to materialise yesterday as the movement reels from a bloody army crackdown on followers of ousted President Mohammed Mursi.
Troops and police had taken relatively low-key security measures before the “Friday of Martyrs” processions that were to have begun from 28 mosques in the capital after weekly prayers.
But mid-day prayers were cancelled at some mosques and few major protests unfolded in Cairo, although witnesses said at least 1,000 people staged a march in the Mohandiseen district.
There were no reports of violence in that procession, but the Brotherhood’s website said one person had been killed in the Nile Delta town of Tanta in clashes with security forces.
Brotherhood supporters also turned out in Alexandria, several Delta towns, the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, the north Sinai town of Rafah, and Assiut in the south, with minor skirmishes reported in some places.
“We are not afraid; it’s victory or death,” said Mohamed Abdel Azim, a retired oil engineer who was among about 100 people marching slowly from a mosque near Cairo University.
“They intend to strike at Muslims,” the grey-bearded Azim said. “We’d rather die in dignity than live in oppression. We’ll keep coming out until there’s no one left.”
Despite his defiant words, the mood of the protesters seemed subdued, perhaps a sign that the crackdown and the round-up of Brotherhood leaders has chilled the rank-and-file.
Some marchers carried posters of Mursi, who was toppled by army chief General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on July 3 after huge demonstrations against his rule.
“No to the coup,” they chanted.
At another small protest in Cairo, a veiled nursery teacher with four children, who gave her name as Nasra, said: “God will make us victorious, even if many of us are hurt and even if it takes a long time. God willing, God will bring down Sisi.”
Egypt has endured the bloodiest civil unrest in its modern history since August 14 when police destroyed protest camps set up by Mursi’s supporters in Cairo to demand his reinstatement.
The violence has alarmed Egypt’s Western allies, but US President Barack Obama acknowledged that even a decision to cut off US aid to Cairo might not influence its military rulers.
But he said Washington was re-evaluating its ties with Egypt. “There’s no doubt that we can’t return to business as usual, given what’s happened,” he told CNN in an interview.
Some US lawmakers have called for a halt to the $1.5bn a year in mostly military assistance to Egypt to bolster its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Military cooperation includes privileged US access to the Suez Canal.
The Brotherhood, hounded by Egypt’s new army-backed rulers, had called for demonstrations across the country against the crackdown, testing the resilience of its battered support base.
Security forces kept a watchful eye, but did not flood the streets, even near Cairo’s central Fateh mosque, where gun battles killed scores of people last Friday and Saturday. REUTERS
