Arab Spring, Round 2

[Savonarola]

From Al Jazeera:

Deadly clashes erupt in Egypt's Alexandria


At least one dead, 85 wounded in street battles between pro- and anti-Morsi protesters amid rival rallies in Cairo.



Last Modified: 28 Jun 2013 18:06 



Security has been tightened around Cairo ahead of this weekend's planned demonstrations [AFP]


Clashes have broken out in the Egyptian city of Alexandria between anti- and pro-government supporters that have left at least one dead and more than 80 wounded, according to the state news agency MENA.

Some anti-government protesters set fire to the local headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party in the Sidi Gaber area of the city on Friday.

Violence also broke out in other parts of the country with reports of attacks on Muslim Brotherhood offices in several cities and governorates, including Gharbiya, Daqahliyah and Kafr el-Sheikh.

Earlier, several thousand protesters marched along the Alexandria's seafront complaining mainly about economic stagnation.

"There are no services, we can't find diesel or gasoline. We elected [President Mohamed] Morsi, but this is enough," said 42-year-old accountant Mohamed Abdel Latif.

Cairo protests

Meanwhile, thousands of supporters and opponents of Morsi were holding rival demonstrations on the streets of the capital, Cairo.

Morsi supporters gathered at the Rabia el-Adawiya mosque in Nasr City to assert that "[the government's] legitimacy was a red line", in response to opposition plans for a major rally over the weekend to demand president's resignation.

Thousands of Morsi backers filled the street outside the mosque, chanting religious slogans. "It is for God, not for position or power", they shouted.

"I'm here to defend my voice. If you want Morsi to leave, that's fine, but after four years," said Taher Mohamed, manning a stall and selling pro-Morsi gear at the rally.

Naeem Ghanem, another Morsi supporter accused the opposition of working with the US and Israel.

"Don't believe that everyone is against the president, 90 percent of the people are with Morsi," he said.

Hundreds of opposition protesters have gathered in Tahrir Square, demanding the president's resignation, ahead of a separate major demonstration plannned on Sunday - a year after President Morsi took office.

The opposition activists have been holding a sit-in in the Tahrir Square, the iconic epicentre of the protest movement that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, since Tuesday.

Deepening divisions among ruling Islamist and the largely secular opposition have heightened tensions in Egypt.

'Civil war'

For the past several days, Morsi's opponents and members of his Muslim Brotherhood have been battling it out in the streets of several cities in the Nile Delta in violence that has left at least four dead and more than 400 injured.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group said all the four people who died in Mansura city were its members.

Some people "think they can topple a democratically elected President by killing his support groups," Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, wrote on his Twitter account.

Many fear the clashes are a prelude to more widespread and bloodier battles on Sunday.

In a sign of the charged atmosphere, a senior cleric, Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, from Al-Azhar, the country's most eminent Muslim religious institution, warned of the possibility of "civil war" after the street clashes in the Delta.

The opposition accuses Morsi, who is Egypt's first democratically elected president, of failing to fulfill the objectives of the revolution that forced Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011.

They accuse the ruling Islamists of focusing on consolidating power and failing to address Egypt's economic and social problems.

The army, which heeded mass protests in early 2011 to push aside Mubarak, has warned it will intervene again if there is violence and to defend the "will of the people".

Morsi's supporters have vowed that he will complete his four-year term, which ends in 2016.

On Wednesday, Morsi defended his performance in his first year in office. He admitted that mistakes had been made, but offered no concessions for his opponents.

One of my co-workers is Saudi.  He was in Alexandria when a previous round of protests was going on.  While he's a more-or-less devout Muslim, he's lived here long enough to take a dim view of Egyptians and of their democracy.  His description of the demonstration was that whoever was talking the loudest on the street had the most supporters and pro- and anti- Morsi protestors would switch sides throughout the day.

[CountDeMoney]

While he's a more-or-less devout Muslim, he's lived here long enough to take a dim view of Egyptians and of their democracy.

Definitely one to talk.

[Phillip V]

Egypt needs a Coptic Christian absolute monarchy.

[Cecil]

I always did sa that the protests was less about any political liberties than the economic malaise gripping the country. No new government can do much about it though as Egypt is overpopulated as hell and the country just cant support that many people without massive imports that they cant pay for.

[Phillip V]

American Stabbed to Death as Unrest Spreads Across Egypt

'At least three people were killed and hundreds were injured across Egypt on Friday, as antigovernment protesters ransacked Muslim Brotherhood offices and tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi held dueling rallies in the capital.

While the protests in Cairo remained peaceful, deadly clashes erupted in the port city of Alexandria, where protesters set fire to the Brotherhood's headquarters. Security officials said that among the victims was a United States citizen, a man who was stabbed to death near the headquarters.
...
The violence on Friday provided a dark prelude to planned mass protests on Sunday by Mr. Morsi's opponents, who are demanding that the president step down and early elections be held. Fears about possible violence at the marches have preoccupied the country for weeks and further split Egypt's deeply polarized political class.
...
At least seven people have been killed in violent episodes over the last three days outside Cairo.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/world/middleeast/egypt-tensions.html

[CountDeMoney]

American Stabbed to Death

I look forward to the months' long Republican congressional investigation on how the President allowed this to happen, particularly when he was on THE EXACT SAME CONTINENT AT THE TIME.

[Tamas]

I want to hear what Tampax has to say about his fellow gypsies.

I am whiter than you, crypto-finn

[Ed Anger]

I want to hear what Tampax has to say about his fellow gypsies.

I am whiter than you, crypto-finn

A deep dark red. Maroon even.

[Phillip V]

American Stabbed to Death

I look forward to the months' long Republican congressional investigation on how the President allowed this to happen, particularly when he was on THE EXACT SAME CONTINENT AT THE TIME.

American Killed in Egypt Taught English to Children

An American college student killed Friday during antigovernment violence in Egypt was in the country on an internship to teach young children English while also improving his own skills speaking Arabic, family members said.
...
“Our beloved 21-year-old son and brother Andrew Driscoll Pochter went to Alexandria for the summer, to teach English to 7- and 8-year-old Egyptian children and to improve his Arabic,” the statement said. “He was looking forward to returning to Kenyon College for his junior year and to spending his spring semester in Jordan.”

“He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/world/middleeast/american-killed-in-egypt-taught-english-to-children.html

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Egypt needs a Coptic Christian absolute monarchy.

it's the only solution. Egypt for the real egyptians

[Admiral Yi]

I always did sa that the protests was less about any political liberties than the economic malaise gripping the country. No new government can do much about it though as Egypt is overpopulated as hell and the country just cant support that many people without massive imports that they cant pay for.

I think that's a more accurate description of Tunisia than of other Arab Spring countries.

In Egypt, similarly to Turkey, an urban educated minority wanted something on the lines of a liberal Western democracy, whereas the uneducated majority wanted a Islamist government.  Perhaps the only thing that united the two was dislike of regime crony corruption.

In Libya it was a replay of the same old tired tribal politics.

[Valmy]

"He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding."

He is not the first and will not be the last person killed in the Middle East in that pursuit.

You have to be one courageous person to spend any time in Egypt these days as a foreigner.

[Valmy]

Egypt needs a Coptic Christian absolute monarchy.

it's the only solution. Egypt for the real egyptians

I predict this solution would: end badly.

[Viking]

"He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding."

He is not the first and will not be the last person killed in the Middle East in that pursuit.

You have to be one courageous person to spend any time in Egypt these days as a foreigner.

He was Jewish and an active member of his campus Hillel according to Israeli news. So, it's possible he was not murdered for being an american or a foreigner but because he was a zionist j00.

[Sheilbh]

In Egypt, similarly to Turkey, an urban educated minority wanted something on the lines of a liberal Western democracy, whereas the uneducated majority wanted a Islamist government.  Perhaps the only thing that united the two was dislike of regime crony corruption.

I think that's wrong on Egypt and wrong on Turkey. The economic problem in Egypt is enormous.