(AFP Photo)
By Charlie Miller
Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi marched on Salah Salem Road early on Sunday, to “deliver a message to the leaders of the coup,” a statement released by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) read.
The demonstrators marched from the sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adaweya and stopped outside the Central Auditing Organisation, the statement continued, and aimed to convey that “the options for escalation exist without limits, until the return of legitimacy.” The demonstrators also demanded an end to the “military coup”.
The march returned to Rabaa Al-Adaweya, chanting “down with the military coup” and “Egypt is Islamic”, the statement read.
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad announced “over 60 anti-coup rallies in Cairo only” on Sunday, following a call by senior FJP leader Gamal Heshmat onstage at Rabaa Al-Adaweya for “all Egyptians to go down to the streets.”
FJP spokesman Tarek Al-Morsi explained that the march to Salah Salem was to raise awareness and protest against the media, which he claimed has been “blacking out” the Brotherhood. Al-Morsi claimed the march held several thousand marchers, who had come down to the streets to “protest the coup”.
Al-Morsi said a total of 34 marches were planned for Sunday, which would follow the same route as Friday’s rallies, marching under the banner of “Pray against Oppressors” and would head for the sit-ins at Rabaa Al-Adaweya in Nasr City and Al-Nahda Square in Giza.
He said there were no plans to expand the sit-ins to Mostafa Mahmoud in Mohandiseen and Alf Maskan, but mentioned plans to expand to “other locations”, although he refused to confirm exactly where.
Al-Morsi claimed that elements from the army and interior ministry attempted to attack the sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adaweya at dawn prayers on Sunday. Armoured personnel carriers, he stated, approached the sit-in from side streets, but “retreated after they found several hundred thousand demonstrators” in the square.
A spokesman from the armed forces, who asked not to be named, denied the claim, saying there was no heightened military presence around Rabaa Al-Adaweya.
