Fears of civil war as Egypt erupts
Death toll mounts as protesters call for Morsi to step down
TWO people, one a US student, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president.
A third man was killed and 10 people were injured in an explosion during a protest in Port Said. The police said the cause was unclear, but protesters, believing it was a bomb, attacked an Islamist party office.
Egypt’s leading religious authority warned of “civil war” after violence in the past week that has left several dead and hundreds injured. They backed President Mohamed Morsi’s offer to talk to opposition groups ahead of today’s protests.
The United Nations, European Union and US have appealed for restraint and urged Egypt’s deadlocked political leaders to step back from a confrontation threatening the new democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring revolution of 2011.
The US embassy said in a statement it was evacuating nonessential staff and family members and renewed a warning to Americans not to travel to Egypt unless they had to.
The Muslim Brotherhood said eight of its offices were attacked on Friday, including the one in Alexandria. Officials said more than 70 people had been injured in clashes in the city. One was shot dead and a young American who was using a small camera died after being stabbed in the chest.
He was identified as Andrew Pochter, a 21-year-old student from Chevy Chase, Maryland, who had been studying at Ohio’s Kenyon College.
The college said he had been
With the state we’re in now, even a stone would cry out
working as an intern for the US educational organisation Amideast.
A Muslim Brotherhood member was also killed in an attack on a party office at Zagazig in the heavily populated Nile Delta, where much of the violence has been concentrated.
Morsi’s movement said five supporters had died this week.
“Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war,” said clerics at Cairo’s AlAzhar Institute, one of the most influential centres of scholarship in the Muslim world.
In a statement broadly supportive of Morsi, they backed his offer of dialogue and blamed “criminal gangs” who besieged mosques for the violence.
The Muslim Brotherhood warned of “dire consequences” and “a violent spiral of anarchy”. It accused liberal leaders, including former UN diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, of inciting violence by hired “thugs” once loyal to ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt’s opposition leaders condemned the violence.
The army, which has warned it could intervene if political leaders lost control, issued a statement saying it had deployed across the country to protect citizens and installations of national importance.
In the capital, Cairo, tens of thousands turned out for rival events kilometres apart and there was little trouble.
An Islamist rally included calls for reconciliation.
In Tahrir Square, cradle of the uprising against Mubarak, there was a festive atmosphere and a determination to shake Morsi today.
In Alexandria, as several thousand anti-Morsi protesters marched along the seafront, about a dozen men threw rocks at guards outside the Muslim Brotherhood office. They responded. Bricks and bottles flew and guns were fired.
Officials said dozens were wounded by birdshot. The party office was ransacked and documents were burned, watched by jubilant youths chanting against Egypt’s leaders.
Islamists gathered round a Cairo mosque after weekly prayers to show support for Morsi. Some speakers reflected fear and anger among Islamists that opponents aim to suppress them as Mubarak did. But there was also talk of the need for dialogue.
A few hundred opposition protesters gathered outside the presidential palace, a focus of today’s rally. Opponents hope that millions will turn out to demand that Morsi step down, a year to the day after he was sworn in as Egypt’s first freely chosen leader.
Morsi, who has moved elsewhere, has dismissed such demands as an assault on democracy.
Thousands turned out after dark in Tahrir Square, waving national flags.
Abdelhamid Nada, a 32-yearold accountant, said he would camp out “until Morsi goes”.
“The Muslim Brotherhood have no plan at all,” he said. “They don’t have any economic plan, they don’t have any social plan, they don’t have any political plan.”
Mohamed Abdel Latif, an accountant, said: “I’ve nothing to do with politics, but with the state we’re in now, even a stone would cry out. There are no services — we can’t find diesel or gasoline. We elected Morsi, but this is enough.”
The army has warned that it will intervene again if there is violence and to defend the “will of the people”. Both sides believe this means the military may support their positions.
The US, which funds Egypt’s army, as it did under Mubarak, has urged compromise and respect for election results.
Egypt’s 84 million people, the control of the Suez Canal and its peace treaty with Israel all contribute to its global strategic importance.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Egyptians to respect “universal principles of peaceful dialogue”. —