Egyptians Pushing for Removing Morsi
CAIRO (ST) _ Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt’s Islamist president poured onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
In a potentially volatile confrontation, several dozen youths attacked the headquarters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood on a plateau overlooking the capital. They threw stones and firebombs at the building, and people inside the walled villa fired at the attackers with birdshot, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene. Earlier in the day, two offices belonging to the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, were attacked and ransacked in the city of Bani Suef, south of Cairo.
Nationwide, the rallies were among the most gigantic Egypt has seen in nearly 2 ½ years of continuous upheaval, including during the square-packing, 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, AP reported .
Waving Egyptian flags and carrying posters of Morsi crossed out in red, crowds packed central Cairo’s Tahrir square, the birthplace of anti-Mubarak, thunderous chants of “erhal!”, or “leave!” rang out.
At the same time, a tidal wave of crowds marched on the Ittihadiya presidential palace, filling a broad boulevard for blocks and spilling over into nearby avenues. “You lied to us in the name of religion,” some chanted, and others raised a banner proclaiming, “Morsi=Mubarak. Early presidential elections.” The crowds hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards — a sign of expulsion in soccer.
Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs — precautions, they said, against possible violence. Their crowd also swelled as sun went down and summer temperatures became more tolerable
Morsi, who has three years left in his term, has said he will not step down, saying street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.
Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.
In Cairo, some marchers carried tents, planning to camp in Tahrir or outside the palace.
“The country is only going backward (under Morsi). He’s embarrassing us and making people hate Islam,” said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. “We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority,” added Rashad, who wore a tiny tiara in the letters of “erhal.”
At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque, the crowd chanted, “God is great,” and some held up copies of Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for “Rebel.” For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.
On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures — proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.
It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the around 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year’s presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.
Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country’s interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi’s policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt’s eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi’s insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.
T. Fateh