The number of protesters holding a sit-in in front of the presidential palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, went down from a few thousand last Friday to a few hundred on Saturday
The number of protesters holding a sit-in in front of the presidential palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, went down from a few thousand last Friday to a few hundred on Saturday. They protested against the Islamist rule of Egypt which they alleged is run by the Ikwan Muslimoun, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to which the president Mohamed Mursi belongs. The leader of the rally, the politician Mohamed Abu-Hamed, had issued a statement [http://www.wataninet.com/watani_Article_Details.aspx?A=30192] citing the full demands of the protestors. Major among them was that the MB group should either be disbanded on grounds that it is an illegal group—Egyptian law stipulates that religious NGOs may have no political activity—or should be legalised, meaning it should not do politics and its funding sources should be publicised. Other demands called for opening official investigations into the role of the MB and other Islamist groups in the killing of 16 Egyptian border guards in Rafah on the Egypt Gaza border earlier this month; and the alleged smuggling of Egyptian subsidised food products, fuel, and electricity into Gaza.
At midnight on Saturday the protestors disbanded as they had originally planned but, in agreement with a call by activist and founder of the Labour Party Kamal Khalil, said they would again demonstrate in front of the presidential palace next weekend.
The protestors, who call for a civic State in Egypt, include secular Egyptians, Sufi Muslim movements and Coptic youth movements.
WATANI International
26 August 2012