ASSIUT,
Egypt (AP) — The southern Egyptian city of Assiut has long been a haven
for radical Islamists, and its Christian minority has largely kept a
low profile. That all changed this weekend.
Mourners carry the coffin of
Mohamed Abdel Hamid Mecca Masjid, who was killed Sunday when gunmen on a
motorcycle opened fire on a protests against Egypt's Islamist
President, Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut, Egypt, Monday, July 1, 2013. In
the city of Assiut, a stronghold of Islamists, gunmen on a motorcycle
opened fire on a protest in which tens of thousands were participating,
killing one person, wounding several others and sending the crowd
running. (AP Photo/Mamdouh Thabet)
ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — The southern Egyptian city of Assiut has
long been a haven for radical Islamists, and its Christian minority has
largely kept a low profile. That all changed this weekend.
An
estimated crowd of 50,000 packed the streets this weekend to join
protests calling for President Mohammed Morsi's ouster, prompting a
violent response that left three people dead.
The show of defiance
can only be fairly measured in view of the city's bloody history and
the shifts in the local centers of power when Morsi became president a
year ago, empowering many of the hard-line Islamist groups around the
country, including those in Assiut.
The bloody end of the protest —
32 people were also injured — points to the high risks that Assiut
residents, particularly Christians, face if they were to join the wave
of opposition to Morsi's rule that culminated Sunday when millions of
Egyptians came out across the country to demand his ouster.
"I, my
kids Mariam and Remon and my husband, Nabil, came out because we miss
the Egypt we know and we want it back," Assiut resident Mary Demian
said. "These people (militant Muslims) say we are infidels and they
terrorize us, but we are not scared. This is our nation and we have
always lived with Muslims in peace."
The size of Sunday's rally
was nearly five times the demonstration that celebrated the ouster of
Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. But what is equally important is that
the protesters showed a level of defiance and courage that may have been
unthinkable just days ago.
It defined a change of mood in a city
of 1 million people where political activism has traditionally been the
exclusive domain of the powerful Islamists of Gamma Islamiya, a
hard-line group that fought a bloody insurgency against Mubarak's regime
in the 1990s. The insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead,
including foreign tourists and Christians.
The group, born in
Assiut in the 1970s, has since renounced violence and set up a political
party after Mubarak's ouster, joining a new political landscape
dominated by Islamists. Thousands of its members were jailed under
Mubarak's 29-year rule. It is now one of the strongest allies of Morsi
and his Muslim Brotherhood.
Adding to the combustible mix,
Christians in Assiut province make up about a third of its 4 million
people. In all of Egypt, Christians make up about 10 percent of the
estimated 90 million people.
In that context, Assiut can be a
major flashpoint if the two sides decide to fight it out. Islamists
across much of the country were mobilizing their supporters Monday night
after the chief of the armed forces gave Morsi and his opponents 48
hours to work out their differences. If they don't, warned Gen.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the military will intervene with a political road
map of its own for the nation's future.
In the meantime, millions
of Morsi opponents are rallying for a second day in a row, filling
Cairo's Tahrir Square, the thoroughfare outside Morsi's presidential
palace, and elsewhere in the country.
Sunday's events in Assiut underline the city's potential as a main battlefield in the fight between the two sides.
Significantly,
the anti-opposition rally was held in tandem and in close proximity to
another one by Gamaa Islamiya, whose members toured the city on
motorbikes chanting "Down with the saboteurs!" before they gathered near
a government building only 50 yards from the opposition rally.
"Our
rally was a message to everyone that we are here on the streets doing
what our conscience dictates to us and that we shall not allow saboteurs
to do what they wish," said Tareq Beder, the Gamaa official in charge
of Assiut.
In the run-up to the opposition rally, several
activists also received threatening text messages. "All of you infidels
will die," said one, sent to Christian activist Joseph Amin.
The protesters burned posters of Morsi and Assem Abdel-Maged, a longtime leader of Gamaa.
"Oh
Assiut, tell the terrorists that Muslims and Christians are united!"
they chanted. "Down, down with Assem Abdel-Maged the terrorist!" they
screamed.
Abdel-Maged, a native of Assiut, has been taking the
lead in a campaign to discredit Morsi's critics, delivering fiery
speeches that brand them as communists, extremist Christians and paid
Mubarak loyalists.
The violence began soon after the festive rally
got underway when a suspected Islamist riding behind another man on a
motorbike opened fire on the crowd, killing a 21-year-old Christian man,
Abanob Atef, and injuring 11. Protesters used the blood from the fatal
head wound to write on the ground "Erhal!" or "Leave!" — the chant of
the Arab Spring protesters now directed at Morsi.
Enraged by the
violence, many of the protesters moved to the nearby villa housing the
local branch of the Freedom and Justice party, the political arm of the
Muslim Brotherhood.
Suspected Morsi supporters in the villa opened
fire on the protesters, killing two more and injuring another 21,
according to security officials speaking on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Fighting
continued with the protesters pelting the villa with firebombs and
rocks. Policemen, angered by the death of one of their own, joined the
fight on the side of the protesters.
The fighting continued for
hours, with the police occasionally retreating because of heavy gunfire.
Morsi's supporters, some wearing construction helmets and homemade body
armor, shot at the protesters and police from pickup trucks and
motorbikes that came in waves.
Both the Gamaa and the Muslim Brotherhood in Assiut have denied involvement in the violence.
Violence
resumed Monday, with about 3,000 anti-Morsi protesters storming and
torching the villa housing the Freedom and Justice party.
___
Hendawi reported from Cairo.
end quote from:
I worry a lot for the future of Egypt. Even though Mubarak wasn't ideal still he held Egypt together. Now, there is not enough infrastructure of democracy there yet to sustain what is happening to the nation through the present crises. With Mubarak gone who is going to stop Ethiopia from building their dam of the Nile? Who is going to stop that? Without something as simple as that being done what future does Egypt have at all under any rule? Without water there is no Egypt. I worry that Egypt might go down the same route as Syria which would be awful not only for Egypt but also for the whole world.
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