Throughout the past week the Muslim Brotherhood have continued their protest camp in Nasr city and held protest marches in Cairo in an attempt to achieve the objectives they set for themselves at last Friday's (19/7/13) "Second Crossing" protests but failed to achieve due to a lack of support. Yesterday they called for a day of "Discernment/Al-Furqan" protest. Marking the 17th day of Ramadan this celebrates the 17th Century "Great Battle of Badr" in which Muslims although outnumbered won a military victory against non-believers. Apart from being a call to violence this was supposed to be the Brotherhood asking Egyptians to choose between good (Islam as the Brotherhood see it) and bad (democracy as the Brotherhood see it).
Friday was also the day that Egypt's military asked people to take to the streets to show support for it's war against terrorism predominately in the Sinai. With nine of Egypt's largest TV networks showing their support for the military by postponing popular drama shows and soap operas in order to encourage people to attend the protests the Egyptian people overwhelmingly chose to support democracy over the Brotherhood. Estimates show that roughly 32 million of Egypt's 80 million population came out in support of the military nationally with 20-25 million of those taking to the streets of Cairo alone. Unfortunately some of those protesting took the military's call as an instruction to attack the Muslim Brotherhood directly. So in Damietta Brotherhood supporters were attacked by local residents while they were awaiting transport to the Nasr city demonstration leaving 10 people injured. In the Shubra suburb of Cairo a Brotherhood protests numbering a few hundred was attacked by local residents again leaving around 10 injured. The worst of the violence though occurred in Egypt's second city Alexandria where pro-democracy and Brotherhood protest marches met sparking of a day of rioting that left 5 dead and 91 injured.
The Brotherhood themselves were far from peaceful though. Not only did they fight back in Alexandria and Shubra in Cairo several members were arrested in possession of weapons including firearms, a group of pro-democracy demonstrators were attacked by armed Brotherhood supporters as they made their way to Tahrir Square. Most provocatively though the Brotherhood protesters decided to storm the International Garden in Nasr city and pledged to occupy it until Morsi is reinstated in a move that infuriated local residents. Also while not directly attributed to the Brotherhood Islamist terrorists in the Sinai carried out gun, RPG and bomb attacks across Sheikh Zuwayed co-ordinated to target police and civilians as they sat down to break fast at Iftar. Fortunately no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported so far.
With public anger towards the Brotherhood demonstration in Nasr city rising Egypt's interim Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim appear on television to reassure people that the Nasr city demonstration would soon cleared in a legal manner following a vast number of complaints from local residents. This was a clear attempt to calm the situation by stopping residents taking matters into their own hands by assuring them that the government would take action soon. Unfortunately the Muslim Brotherhood saw this as an opportunity to once again portray themselves as the oppressed victims of a military dictatorship and started to spin the Interior Ministers comments as a threat.
Just before dawn today Brotherhood supporters decided to march out of Nasr city towards the October 6th bridge and Tahrir Square in an attempt to provoke or attack their opponents. This was too much for local residents and supporters who promptly attacked the Brotherhood march causing a violent confrontation during which both sides exchanged bricks, bottles and gunfire. Eventually the police/military intervened to separate the two factions. The exact numbers killed and injured during the confrontation are not yet known. Not all of those injured sought help at official hospitals so although the Health Ministry's figure of 29 killed and 649 injured is an accurate account of the people it has treated it does not take into account all those injured. The Muslim Brotherhood's estimate of 120 killed and more than 4000 injured is simply a lie intended to portray themselves as victims of a massacre. The figure that most people consider to be accurate is 70 dead and around 1500 injured. The one thing that's known for sure is that 51 of those injured were members of the police/military including two who are in a critical condition after being shot in the head.
Obviously today most of Egypt is in shock following the incident with some blaming the military and some blaming the Brotherhood. The one thing that most people agree on though is that the violence has to stop. That is everyone of course expect the Muslim Brotherhood who have today already attempted to storm the Al-Azhar University in a clear attempt to provoke another confrontation with the military/police. The one thing that is clear to me though is that something has to be done to bring the Muslim Brotherhood's Nasr city protest to an end.
I think the best way to achieve this is for the Brotherhood to agree to move their protest to somewhere that is less disruptive. Primarily that is because while they do not have the right to commit acts of violence or disrupt the day to day running of the city I think that the Brotherhood do have a right to protest. Beyond that while the Brotherhood's demonstration is comparatively tiny it still numbers in the tens of thousands. Arresting and imprisoning that many people is going to be a logistical nightmare not to mention that internationally it will lead to a lot of criticism for arbitrary detention and domestically will help to fuel the Brotherhood's propaganda that they are being oppressed.
Therefore I think it would be better to move the demonstration to a public square or park where the Brotherhood can protest for as long as they like without blocking roads and disrupting the lives of local residents. If these protests were taking place in London, UK I would suggest using Hyde Park but I don't have to local knowledge to suggest somewhere similar in Cairo. That said if the Brotherhood refuse to compromise by moving to the new location they will have to be removed from Nasr city by force and if they choose to fight back some of them may have to be killed.
17:40 on 27/7/13.
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