Egyptian tensions rise on eve of ramadan
CAIrO • It was well after midnight when mahmoud Hifny finally lost it.
He had sweated through traffic while his fuel needle hovered ominously over the red “e” and finally joined a snaking line leading to one of the few downtown gas stations still pumping fuel. Two hours later, he was still waiting, stranded in an exhaust-choked sea of cars whose drivers had also lost hours trying to fill their tanks.
“We’ ll get rid of those sons of dogs!” mr. Hifny, 42, yelled to no one in particular, though everyone knew he meant President mohamed morsi and his allies.
A powerful confluence of crises is engulfing egypt as summer temperatures reach punishing heights, fraying tempers and fuelling anger among many toward the country’s leaders.
economic malaise is spreading just before ramadan, the year’s costliest season for muslims who fast by day and celebrate at night. Adding to tensions, the government has failed to ease frequent electricity cuts and a worsening fuel crisis that has left gas lines clogging major thoroughfares for hours.
underpinning the discontent is a deep sense of foreboding that mass protests planned for this weekend to call for mr. morsi’s ouster could set off new street violence or push the country deeper into political instability. Protests and counterprotests are expected to pick up on Friday and peak on Sunday, the anniversary of mr. morsi’s inauguration as the country’s first freely elected president, though the opposition says it will stay in the streets until mr. morsi falls. On Wednesday, one man was killed in the city of mansura in an attack on a muslim brotherhood march.
“There is so much tension between people over what is going on,” said mohammed Ali, a film director. “It is like seeing gas next to a fire, but you’re not sure who will set it alight.”
Families are rushing to finish their ramadan shopping early in case shops remain closed, and others are rushing to finish projects, fearing they may not get the chance once the protests begin.
egyptians have grown used to the gridlock that mass protests can produce, so they know to prepare.
“It’s not about what will happen during those three days,” mr. Ali said. “It is what will happen after those three days. No one has any idea.”
In a major speech on Wednesday, mr. morsi renewed his call to the opposition to offer constitutional amendments, but dismissed the protesters as seeking to undermine the democratic process to “turn back the clock.”
Writing for the online Foreign Policy magazine, mohamed elbaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate who is expected to bid for the egyptian presidency in 2016, said egypt was rapidly becoming a failed state.
“Today you see an erosion of state authority in egypt. “The state is supposed to provide security and justice; that’s the most basic form of statehood. but law and order is disintegrating. In 2012, murders were up 130 per cent, robberies 350 per cent, and kidnappings 145 per cent, according to the Interior ministry.
“you see people being lynched in public, while others take pictures of the scene. mind you, this is the 21st century — not the French revolution!,” he wrote.