By Brett Borkan
CAIRO: The head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party on Monday denied allegations that his party is planning a counter-demonstration this Friday to protest the country’s continued sit-ins.
In a statement posted on the Freedom and Justice Party’s website, secretary general Mohamed Saad El-Katatney “denied that there is any truth behind what was published in various internet websites, that his party is participating in organizing a million-man protest this coming Friday [under the title of] ‘Friday of Stability’.”
El-Katatney did, however, call for a return to stability in Egypt, and urged protesters to end their nationwide sit-ins that have continued across Egypt in the past few weeks.
“Egypt today needs stability. What Tahrir Square is in dire need of right now is tranquility, and a concern for moving Egypt towards stability and development,” he said in the online statement.
Thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square and in other squares across the country began an open-ended sit-in, following the July 8 “Friday of Determination” demonstrations, to pressure the country’s ruling military council and caretaker government to implement a series of demands shared across political factions.
The Muslim Brotherhood, its Freedom and Justice Party, and other Islamic parties, however, have expressed their opposition to the sit-ins, which they claim seed chaos and instability in Egypt, and fail to offer the government adequate time to implement the people’s demands.
In the statement, El-Katatney cited positive steps the Egyptian government has taken towards fulfilling protestors’ demands, and bringing corrupt officials and those responsible for killing protestors to trial, and “called for an end to the sit-ins taking place across Egyptian squares.”
He also warned that continued “chaos” could “destroy what Egyptian’s achieved in the revolution” earlier this year.
Last Friday, tens of thousands of Egyptians from a wide array of political groups took to the streets in the “Friday of Final Warning” to demand justice for victims of the revolution, call for a reshuffling of government ministers, and to end military trials of civilians, among other demands.
However, without the participation of Egypt’s various Islamic groups, the nationwide turnout on July 15 was considerably lower than July 8, which enjoyed nearly full participation across the political spectrum.
A small gathering of a few hundred demonstrators took to Roxy Square last Friday in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis to voice their support for the country’s ruling military council and a return to stability.
