Cairo relatively quiet ahead of referendum
CAIRO — Fiery clashes broke out between secularists and Islamists Friday in the northern port city of Alexandria.
But relatively few protesters turned out to demonstrate their revolutionary fervour Friday in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square or elsewhere in the capital on the eve of the first round of voting Saturday on a draft constitution that would give Islam a bigger role in state affairs.
Tired and half-hearted may be the most accurate way to describe Friday’s marches, rallies and demonstrations in Cairo. Even the rhyming slogans that both sides have repeated, mantralike, for weeks lacked their usual resonance or oomph.
That is not to suggest that Egypt’s 50 million-plus eligible voters do not remain deeply divided over the future direction of their country or that a bloody, limited civil war could erupt at any time. But after terrifying street violence in Cairo last week, President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers cleverly extinguished some of the opposition’s spark by handing back a few presidential powers to parliament and the courts and by getting the army to state that it was prepared to protect state institutions including the presidency itself.
Still, big questions remained about the violence in Cairo, which started when rival marches ran into each other near the presidential palace. Given how highly organized the Islamists are and how disorganized the secularists are, it looked to some as if the former had gone looking for the latter.
A totally unscientific three-person sampling of opinion on the margins of Tahrir Square on Friday captured the electorate’s mood. The first man who was approached made fun of the conglomeration of leftists, liberals, Christians and hangers-on from the old military regime who were in his midst, who bitterly oppose the proposed referendum because it would give Islamic scholars a say in the legal system and limit the rights of women and minorities. A second voter said he was so worn out by all the protests and so disappointed by all the factions and what their protests had done to wreck an already feeble economy that he could not bring himself to vote. A third vowed to cast his ballot and then threw his hands up in despair and confided that he had “honestly not decided yet” what to do.
Some 50,000 police and soldiers were said to be on standby in case there was trouble during voting Saturday. But sensing that there was little likelihood of trouble Friday, wardens did not bother to even check anyone entering Tahrir Square. The immense traffic circle remained a jumble of tents, political banners and garbage. Its most animated occupants Friday night may have been the army of vendors who follow the protesters like Napoleonic camp followers, hawking flags, tea, bread, nuts, spaghetti, sugar cane and most improbably, vegetables including something resembling rutabagas. The most noise was generated by teenage boys who were endlessly fascinated by the pop of firecrackers.
For several days now the Muslim Brotherhood has been distributing a thick pamphlet that includes a copy of the entire constitution. The Brotherhood and their far more radical Salafis allies have also taken to staging rolling, impromptu rallies at key street corners. Part of the drill is to hold aloft photographs of Morsi and banners celebrating the joys and fairness of Sharia law. The subtext that some of the protesters have not been shy about playing up, has been their ambition that the Christian minority and others who oppose the constitution should leave Egypt if they cannot abide the emerging setup.
A few ominous new developments cast a further pall over proceedings for secularists who realistically reckon that Morsi and the Brotherhood will win the vote on the constitution. The government banned romantic songs or video clips on the 24 state-owned television stations on Thursday, according to the semi-official Ahram website. Patriotic songs must be played in their stead. This followed by the sentencing for three years of a Coptic Christian claiming to be atheist who downloaded a controversial video produced in California that mocked Islam.