Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Angry chants, demands for the deposed president’s return to power and protests against military leaders are expected to polarize Egypt again Friday, the Muslim day of prayer.
The Muslim Brotherhood is urging Mohamed Morsy supporters to take to the streets nationwide.
He and other leaders of the organization remain under arrest and may face charges over the deaths of protesters during clashes with Morsy’s supporters, many of whom also died.
Islamist fringe groups have threatened armed retribution for Morsy’s overthrow. Police arrested four men Friday who allegedly planned a reprisal terror attack, state-run news service Al-Ahram reported. They were in possession of arms and explosives, the paper said.
Egypt’s armed forces announced it would guarantee the rights of people to protest, including those who support Morsy, as long it did not result in violence or destruction of property.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces also said it would protect all groups from revenge attacks.
Egyptian values “do not allow for gloating,” it said.
But violence has continued unabated since protests broke out. On Thursday, more than 100 people were wounded and at least two people, believed to be children, were killed in clashes across the country, according to state media.
Shutting Morsy out
Despite the vows to protect their supporters, the military has worked to shut out the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsy was the group’s former leader, and went on to become one of the first democratically elected president of Egypt.
A spokesman for Morsy’s Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing, said that what started as a military coup was “turning into something much more.”
The public prosecutor’s office issued arrest warrants for the Brotherhood’s leader, Mohamed Badei, for “incitement to murder” and its former head, Mohamed Mahdi Akef.
State media reported they had been arrested, but the Brotherhood has called this a “false rumor.”
But it is the tip of the iceberg. Police are seeking 300 more of its members, state media reported.
Morsy’s shortcomings
In the wake of the revolution that took down autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for three decades, crime skyrocketed and the economy tanked.
Morsy’s government was unable to get a grip on either, and his approval ratings plummeted.
Citizens calling for the return of law and order via military rule or the reinstatement of Mubarak joined forces with democracy advocates, and a new protest movement was born.
Democracy activists wanted Morsy removed over his human rights record.
Human Rights Watch has said he continued abusive practices established by the former dictatorship. Military courts continued trying civilians; police abuses were allowed.
And his government added new abuses of power. The Muslim Brotherhood dominated legislature considered allowing security forces to use violence to break up demonstrations.
“Numerous journalists, political activists, and others were prosecuted on charges of ‘insulting’ officials or institutions and ‘spreading false information,’ the rights group said.
Throngs of angry protesters filled Egyptian streets for days, calling for him to step down.
The president’s supporters got behind him at counter demonstrations. At times, the two sides have met and clashed with deadly consequences.
Morsy was initially under house arrest at the presidential Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo, and was later moved to the defense ministry, the Muslim Brotherhood said. The military has not commented on his whereabouts.
Don’t say “coup”
On Monday, the army gave Morsy an ultimatum and 48 hours to comply with it: Either share power with the opposition or be pushed aside.
Opposition protesters in Tahrir Square and elsewhere rewarded the military for the announcement with cheers.
On Wednesday, they celebrated with fireworks and laser shows, after armed forces toppled Morsy and announced its “roadmap” intended to lead to stability and new elections.
A day later, Egypt swore-in Adly Mansour, head of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court, as interim president.
The democratic Tamarod movement that had sought Morsy’s ouster was moving on. It said in a tweet that it had nominated Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, to become prime minister.
ElBaradei, known outside of Egypt as the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Morsy’s ouster was not a coup but was instead a “correction of the uprising of 2011.”
Other opposition leaders and protesters have objected to the use of the word to describe the military’s removal of the elected president via non-democratic means.
President Barack Obama said the United States was “deeply concerned” by the move, but has also not used the word “coup.”
Washington has supplied Egypt’s military with tens of billions of dollars in support and equipment for more than 30 years. Under U.S. law, that support could be cut off after a coup.
More violence
Earlier Friday, Islamist gunmen attacked Egyptian police stations and checkpoints in the Sinai, killing at least one soldier, multiple news agencies reported.
The assaults may have nothing to do with extremist threats to avenge Morsy’s overthrow.
The desert peninsula next to Israel and the Gaza Strip has long eluded the control of Egyptian security forces, leaving extremists affiliated with al Qaeda plenty of room to establish themselves.
Chronic violence troubled the Sinai years before it did the rest of Egypt.
CNN News
