Sharif Abdel Kouddous talking:
thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square and also at the presidential palace. What happened yesterday was really one of the largest protestssome are calling it the largestin Egypts history, a massive turnout that saw hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people take to the streets, fill Tahrir Square, fill the presidential palace, and not just in Cairo, but in Alexandria and cities across the Delta and in upper Egypt, as well, really a mass display of dissent that goes to show the revolutionary spirit in Egypt is still very much alive.
And this came, of course, as you mentioned, on the first anniversary of the inauguration of President Mohamed Morsi. He was elected one year ago with a very thin majority, a 51 percent majority, against a stalwart of the former regime, Ahmed Shafik. And since then, there has been a growing polarization amongst the political class, with the Muslim Brotherhood withdrawing more into itself and its Islamist supporterstheyve even lost support among some Salafi groups, as wellwhile on the street and the lives of ordinary Egyptians have become much harder. Prices of food and medicine and other staple goods have gone up. Crime and insecurity and vigilante violence has increased. Theres electricity blackouts now in the hot summer months that occur every day. There are fuel shortages that cause tremendously long lines, that cause stifling traffic around the country. And so, what we saw yesterday was a coming together of Egyptians from many different walks of life, from ordinary Egyptians who are fed up with the difficulties of everyday life that have only worsened in this last year and since the revolution began, to members of the political class who are opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, to members who are tied to the former regime who took to the streets to try and oust the Muslim Brotherhood, as well. So it was a very large display of dissent.
The Muslim Brotherhood, as you mentioned, had its own rally in a square not far from the presidential palace. It was rather large, but in comparison to the turnout that we saw yesterday of anti-Morsi protesters, it was quite small. And, as you mentioned, the response from the presidency has been to largely ignore, and it seems that they want to try and weather the storm, saying that democracydialogue is the only way forward. Theres been many calls for dialogue over the past year. Much of them have been rejected by the political opposition, who say that the Morsi government and the Muslim Brotherhood just want to talk and not actually put any of their ideas into action.
So, as it stands right now, the Tamarod campaign, which we can talk about a little bit more, the campaign that really started the calls for this protest that took place yesterday, has given Mohamed Morsi until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow to respond and to step down and call for early elections. If he doesnt, theyre saying theyre going to call for an escalation, further protests, more civil disobedience, and possibly calling for a general strike.
The Tamarod campaign, which the word means “rebel” in Arabic, began on May 1st, on Labor Day, here in Tahrir Square, by a group of grassroots activists, many of them tied to the Kefaya movement, which was formed in 2005 against Hosni Mubarak. And they drafted a very simply worded petition, on paper, against Mohamed Morsi that used colloquial Arabic, not classical Arabic, and it called on people to sign their name, put their ID number in, and say they arethey want Mohamed Morsi to step down and call for early elections. They began handing out this petition, and it very quickly gained traction. People would photocopy it and hand it out in schools, in universities, even in government offices. And within the first month, the campaign said, they gained seven million signatures. And the latest number they gave just a couple of days ago was that they gained 22 million signatures calling for Morsis ouster. This is an unverifiable number, but certainly the number of people that have signed is indeed very, very large. And this was manifested, like we saw yesterday, in this incredibly massive turnout. So, the Tamarod campaign is leading calls for an escalation tomorrow.
However, it must be said that elements of the former regime have somewhat taken over the narrative in many respects, especially on the media and in the newspapers, and have called for the army to step in, for the army to take over and force Mohamed Morsi out of office. Of course, we remember that the army came to helm of power after Mubaraks ouster and led the beginning of the transition. They also caused a number of massacres in the streets, 12,000 people put on military trial. Yet, despite that, there are large portions of the Egyptian populous that are calling for the army to step in. We saw yesterday military helicopters flying low over the crowds. Whenever they did, the crowd would cheer. When crowds, the protesters passed military buildings, they would cheer and salute the officers standing inside. So, this is another development, and were waiting to see what the response from the military will be.
Ahmed Maher, the founder of the April 6 Movement, was referring, of course, to the constitutional declaration that Morsi made last November, which really sparked the first uprising against his rule, in which he placed himself above the judiciaryhis decisions could not be overruled by the courtsand he used that power to help force through a constitution that was very divisive and rejected by many members of the opposition and of Egyptian society. We also saw the first real major clashes between the Brotherhood and protesters, resulting in 10 people dead after Brotherhood members cleared a sit-in at the presidential palace. So, that really marked the beginning of this mass opposition and increasing polarization in the country against Mohamed Morsis rule.
Morsi, of course, as you mentioned, spoke to The Guardian, saying he would not step down, that it sets a dangerous precedent. I think its important to remember that what were seeing in Egypt is an increasing alienation and dissatisfaction with this democratic process. Egyptians have gone to the polls more than four times over the last two years, and their lives have not been improved in any way. The political class is seen as removed more and more from the lives of ordinary Egyptians and talking about things that dont relate to them. And so we continually see this tug of war between conventional politics and revolutionary politics. And revolutionary politics is in the street, and thats what we saw an explosion of yesterday.
So, well have to see how it goes forward. It looks like the Brotherhood is hoping and Mohamed Morsi is hoping to weather this storm out. The month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast during the day, is starting in a week, where many suspect that protests will die down as a result of that. Perhaps theyre hoping to make it through until then. But if they doif they do not respond to this mass dissatisfaction, this mass call for some kind of change, then I can only imagine that Egypt will become increasingly unstable and increasingly ungovernable.
some Cabinet ministers may have resigned. This follows a pattern, really, of resignations from Morsis government, including many of his advisers that resigned in the wake of the constitutional declaration in November, and goes to really point to an increasing isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party as a political group that is increasingly alone in ruling the country and not reaching out to any other political groups.
16 people, the health minister has confirmed, were killed yesterday alone, eight of them in front of the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters, where protesters had gone, began throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters. People inside began firing, either with bird shot or with live ammunition, as well, and killed eight people. And there have been deaths across the country as violent clashes have ensued between protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood. The police was really nowhere to be seen in the streets yesterday. They had announced earlier that they would not protect or side with any political group. But notably, they left the protesters to attack the Muslim Brotherhood, and in fact some police were seen protesting alongside the anti-Morsi groups. As you mentioned also, these tensions have been increasing over these past few weeks, and people have died in these clashes.
And the American student died, was stabbed in the chest on Friday in Alexandria during a protest, unclear why the circumstances exactly surrounding his death. He was apparently stabbed while he was photographing or filming the protests. Theres been rising anti-American sentiment from many sides of the political spectrum in Egypt. Just a couple of months ago, an American professor at the American University in Cairo was stabbed in the neck outside the U.S. embassy here. So, theres an increasing anti-American sentiment from the anti-Morsi protesters and from the Muslim Brotherhood, as well. Anti-Morsi protesters see the U.S. as siding with the Brotherhood, and there have been a lot of angry sentiment against the U.S. ambassador, Anne Patterson, for calling on the opposition not to engage in mass-scale protests but to rather engage in dialogue. We saw photos of her yesterday in Tahrir and on the streets with her picture crossed out. So theres increasing anger at the United States.
And just finally to add, the U.S. administration, Secretary of State John Kerry, very quietly approved the $1.3 billion in foreign military assistance that is the annual aid the U.S. gives to the Egyptian military here, despite the arrest and the conviction of 43 NGO workers who were sentenced to between one and five years in prison, including 15 Americans who were tried in absentia, except for one of them. Secretary of State John Kerry waived those concerns in Congress and allowed this foreign military assistance to go forward. And the letter that was leaked to The Daily Beast, you can read, includes the reasons of stopping attacks from Gaza into Israel, allowing U.S. warships through the Suez Canal, allowing U.S. military overflight rights over Egypt. So, again, trumpingsecurity and military concerns trump concerns of democracy and human rights and justice, which has been the policy, the U.S. policy, for some time now towards Egypt.
Mohamed ElBaradei and other leading members of whats called the National Salvation Front, a loose coalition umbrella group of opposition parties that was formed in November, have over these months since then, leading up to thishave been increasinglythey dont really lead the street as much. They have called for different things. They seem to be somewhat disconnected as a political group from the grievances of ordinary Egyptians. They did not lead the call for these protests; that was led from a grassroots campaign that we mentioned before, Tamarod. They have fully supported and backed these protests, have called for a civil disobedience campaign. Soand both Mohamed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabahi, a Nasrist leader who came third in the first round of the presidential elections last year, have supported the protests wholeheartedly.
With regards to members of the former regime, weve seen many members of the former regime take advantage of this groundswell of opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and usetake to the airwaves with very shrill and polarizing language, accusing the Brotherhood of all kinds of things that reallymany of which are not true, calling very openly for the military to step in and take hold of this transition. So, this is really a mishmash of people who have come together. It remains to be seen where it will head. Many young revolutionaries who were at the core of the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, and have been at the core of dissent since then, were very upset at these calls for the military to step in, at calls for warmly embracing members of the police who are protesting alongside them, the same police and the same military who killed over a thousand protesters since this revolution began. So, it really is a complicated political situation, and Egypt is increasingly unstable right now. But really the decision is in the hands of Mohamed Morsi to see how this goes forward.
– source democracynow.org
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! correspondent in Cairo, Egypt.