Civil War Fear in Cairo

[Smilebong]

CAIRO—Two days after Egypt's military replaced the country's president, it sent soldiers into the streets to quell demonstrations, as a week of tensions between Islamists and the military transformed into deadly confrontations that heightened some Egyptians' fears of civil war.

Demonstrations turned bloody Friday as hundreds of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters turned out to protest this week's military-led ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. Muslim Brotherhood officials said police opened fire on protesters in the Cairo suburb where Mr. Morsi and 12 aides were being held under house arrest, killing five people. The military denied those allegations.

Later in the day, armored personnel carriers arrived on the October 6 bridge, near Tahrir Square, to restore order after rival camps clashed with rocks, fireworks and, according to several witnesses, gunfire from automatic weapons.

More than 17 people died in violence across the country, officials said.

The street-level military intervention was a rare occurrence in more than two years of turmoil since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak—but it echoed a dominant Egyptian theme of Mr. Mubarak's long reign, one of a military-backed state pitted against Islamists.

Such fears were renewed late Friday as state television confirmed the arrest of Khairat El Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's influential second-in-command.

Earlier Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood's leader addressed tens of thousands of supporters who gathered for "Rejection Friday" protests, urging them to continue protesting until Mr. Morsi is reinstated.

"We will protect our president Morsi with our necks. We are all willing to sacrifice our necks and souls for him," Brotherhood General Guide Mohammed Badie told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at Cairo's Rabaa Mosque.

While he vowed peaceful protests, Mr. Badie also promised a standoff with the military, saying: "Your role is to protect our borders. Our role, however, is to bring back our president Morsi to his post."

That poses a particular challenge to Egypt's military, which has said it responded to overwhelming public will in removing Mr. Morsi.

In 29 months since Egyptians overthrew longtime Mr. Mubarak, the military has stood aside as street-level violence claimed thousands of lives.

Morsi supporters protest near Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo, where Morsi is under house arrest.
.The military's unparalleled position in Egypt's public life is a result, in part, of the perception that it is a dispassionate defender of the country's broad public.

see more here:

Post-Coup Violence Spreads In Egypt - WSJ.com

 

[waltky]

Granny says it's dem Morsi supporters actin' up...

EXPLOSION IN AT EGYPT SECURITY BUILDING INJURES 16
Jul 23,`13 -- Security officials say a bomb blast in front of a security building in one of Egypt's Nile Delta cities has injured 16 people.

The officials say the bomb exploded just after midnight Wednesday outside the Security Directorate in Dakahliya's provincial capital city of Mansoura.

Officials say citizens were injured, but did not immediately have a breakdown of how many of the casualties were citizens and how many were police officers.

Security officials say police forces surrounded the abandoned building after the explosion and exchanged fire with unidentified gunmen inside. No further details were immediately available.

Source

See also:

EGYPT: ARMY CHIEF SEEKS MANDATE TO FIGHT VIOLENCE
Jul. 24,`13 — Egypt's army chief has called on Egyptians to hold mass demonstrations to voice their support for the military to put an end to "violence" and "terrorism."

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, said Wednesday he wants Egyptians to take to the streets on Friday in support of a campaign by the army and police against "violence" and "terrorism."

It was a thinly veiled reference to stepped up attacks blamed on suspected Islamic militants against security forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the deadly clashes between opponents and supporters of Morsi that have killed dozens.

Egypt: Army chief seeks mandate to fight violence

Related:

MANY NEIGHBORS TIRE OF PRO-MORSI SIT-IN IN EGYPT
Jul 20,`13 -- After three weeks, some local residents have started to have enough with Islamist supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi camped out outside a Cairo mosque in their neighborhood to demand he be restored to office.

Residents are complaining that the sit-in camp is blocking the roads leading to their homes, garbage has piled up on side streets and parks have been trashed. Speeches from the stage blare late into the night in the neighborhood around Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque. At the same time, the complaints have been sucked into Egypt's bitter polarization over the military's removal of Morsi on July 3. Anti-Islamist media have taken up the residents' backlash as evidence the country has turned against the protesters, who vow to continue their street campaign.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, in turn, has sought to show it has the backing of its neighbors, announcing that residents have been bringing the camping protesters sweets and food. The protest camp also issued a statement this past week offering nearby residents "24-hour medical, electricity, plumbing or other services." Morsi supporters have been gathering in the broad intersection in front the mosque since just before the giant protests by millions nationwide against the president that led to his ouster began on June 30.

Now they have settled in for a seemingly permanent presence on the edge of the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City. At least a thousand people camp there in tents overnight and crowds swell at times to tens of thousands for evening rallies. Throughout the day, speakers ranging from ultraconservative clerics to Brotherhood figures to people from the crowd deliver speeches from the stage to rally the audience. "We thought they were just having a protest for the day ... we assumed they'll leave after the revolution (Morsi's fall) but they didn't and life started becoming a tragedy," Sarah Ashraf, a 25-year-old resident, told The Associated Press.

Constant noise from fireworks and the speeches is one big issue for the residents. Another is the tone of some of the speeches, with hard-liners denouncing their opponents. "On their stage, Christians are constantly being threatened and insulted; this is scaring us," said Ashraf, who is Christian. She said she has to wear long-sleeve shirts and more conservative clothing because otherwise she feels uncomfortable passing by the crowd, largely made up of ultraconservative Islamists, with men in long beards and many women veiled.

MORE

 

[editec]

The tension between the very conservative Islamic Egyptians and those demanding a secular national government is obvious.

It would not surprise me that a civil war smolders for decades.

I think the military is about the only force keeping the nation intacts right now.

That's ironic, isn't it?

Usually its the military overturning the government and imposing its will on the people.

Here in Egypt it appears to be the moderator that's keeping the hotheads from tearing into each other.

I may be entire wrong in this anaylsis.

After all, all I know is what the MSM reports.

I definitely do think this is a secular forces V Islamic forces event though.

 

[waltky]

el-Sissi decides to run for Egyptian presidency...

Egypt army chief says he will run for president
March 26, 2014 — Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the Egyptian military chief who last summer removed the elected Islamist president, announced Wednesday that he will run for president in elections expected next month, putting him on an apparent track to lead a nation beleaguered by ongoing turmoil and violence, a broken political order, a dilapidated economy and concerns over the chances for building a democracy.

Wearing his military fatigues in a nationally televised speech, el-Sissi announced he was resigning from the armed forces — a required step since only civilians can run for president. He declared that it was the last time he would wear his uniform because he was stepping down to run president and continue to defend the country. He said he was "answering the demand of a wide range of Egyptians." The 59-year-old el-Sissi is widely expected to win the vote, and restore a tradition of presidents from military background that Egypt had for all but one year since 1952. He has been the country's most powerful figure since removing President Mohammed Morsi, and Morsi's once politically dominant Muslim Brotherhood has since been declared a terrorist group. A nationalist fervor has gripped the country since the removal of Morsi, who in 2012 became Egypt's first freely elected and civilian president. The ouster in July came after massive protests by millions against Morsi and the Islamists.

Since then, the military-backed interim government has waged a fierce crackdown on the Brotherhood, arresting thousands of members and killing hundreds of protesters in clashes. At the same time, militants have waged a campaign of attacks on police and the military, and authorities have accused the Brotherhood of orchestrating terrorism, a claim the group denies. Magdy Karkar, a senior member of a Brotherhood-led coalition organizing anti-government protests, said el-Sissi's candidacy confirms that Morsi's removal was a coup aimed at wrecking democracy, as Islamists have contended. "His running will not achieve stability in Egypt. It's true he has many supporters who love him or even worship him. But on the other hand, there are those who hate Gen. el-Sissi and hold him responsible for the blood that has been shed," Karkar told The Associated Press.

For months, Egyptian media have been depicting el-Sissi, who was promoted to the rank of field marshal in January, as "the savior of the nation" for removing Morsi — and touting him as the only figure capable of running the country. Although there are no credible nationwide polls — in a country with widespread illiteracy — there is a strong sense that el-Sissi will easily win, with little competition. Watching his speech in a coffee shop in Cairo, Sabry Ahmed, in his late 50s, said el-Sissi has what Egypt needs. "He is a political man, a military man, and an economics man. He understands in everything regarding the state," he said. "We can't compare him to anyone else. The country needs a strong man of his size."

In the neighborhood where el-Sissi was born in old Cairo, celebrations broke out as soon as he finished his speech. A distant relative, Mohammed Haroun, cheered: "This is the best decision he took in his life." His candidacy — and presidency, is he wins — is another dramatic turn in Egypt's trajectory that began with the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising demanding democracy after a 29-year rule. The series of elections that followed were the freest Egypt has seen, and brought the Brotherhood and their Islamist allies to political dominance — only to see a large sector of the public turn against them over what was seen as exclusionary politics and attempts to reshape Egypt's identity to deepen the role of Islam.

More Egypt army chief says he will run for president | CNS News