Two Months After Morsi’s Ouster, Thousands Protest Across Egypt

Thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi staged protests across Egypt on Tuesday against what they describe as the “military coup” that ousted him two months previously.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi was ousted by Egypt’s military on 3 July amid mass nationwide protests against his rule.

Several thousand people marched in Cairo and Giza, Suez, the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya and Upper Egypt’s Qena, but the mobilisation seems to have lost much of its strength.

The interim authorities violently cleared two large pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on 14 August, leaving hundreds dead, mostly protesters. There have also been many arrests, both before and after 14 August, of Brotherhood and Islamist leaders who have been slapped with various charges.

Friday 16 August saw huge, heated rallies in support of Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, with exchanges of fire between protesters and security forces leaving dozens dead.

However, the following two Fridays saw lowered turnout in the two planned pro-Morsi protests, fuelling speculation that the security clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies has left the group crippled.

Tuesday’s protests came on the same day as a court ruling which closed down satellite television channel Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, a local affiliate of the Qatari Al Jazeera network. The channel had continued to cover pro-Morsi demonstrations, unlike most private and state channels broadcasting in Egypt.

In the same ruling, the Administrative Court also took Islamist-affiliated channels Al-Yarmouk, Al-Quds and Ahrar 25 off the air.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party provided live streaming of Tuesday’s marches on its Facebook page.

Tahrir Square in the capital was closed off by security forces early on Tuesday, as was Gamat Al-Dowal street and El-Batal Ahmed Abdel street in nearby Mohandiseen, the site of several recent pro-Morsi protests.

Source : Ahram