Reuters/Cairo
More than 30 political parties and movements withdrew from a rally yesterday that was organised to send a united message to the ruling army about reform, saying the event was hijacked by Islamist groups. “Islamic law above the constitution,” read banners in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that was packed with tens of thousands of people. Protesters who fear Islamists will seek to dominate plans to rewrite the constitution demanded they be taken down. “Islamic, Islamic, we don’t want secular”, people chanted in the square filled with many followers of the strict Salafist interpretation of Islam. “There are so many (Islamic) beards. We certainly feel imposed upon,” said student Samy Ali, 23. He said Salafists had tried to separate women and men camping there. Islamists and more liberal groups have diverged on how hard to press the ruling generals for change. They have also been divided over the fate of the constitution, which is to be rewritten after parliament is elected later this year. Liberal groups fear the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organised group, and other Islamists will dominate the vote. A joint statement by more than 30 groups said Islamists and other groups had agreed on demands to make yesterday “to thwart attempts by the military council to divide the revolutionaries and distort their image”. But the groups said “some Islamic currents” violated this agreement. Abdelrahman al-Barr, a senior Brotherhood member, said of the decision by other groups to quit yesterday’s rally: “Salafist slogans shouldn’t be a cause for other political forces to withdraw. Everyone is free to say what they feel like.” But the Brotherhood is home to a broad range of views and some agreed Salafist actions were divisive. “There are certainly some Brotherhood members who are upset over the way Salafist groups have taken over the square,” Brotherhood youth member Amr Salah said in Tahrir. Yesterday’s protests in Cairo and other cities had been called to deliver a unified message to the ruling army council, which took over when Hosni Mubarak was ousted on February 11. Many protesters now say it is not delivering on promises to change. “We agreed on uniting our call for swift elections, resignation of the public prosecutor and the demands of the families of martyrs,” said Mohamed Adel, spokesman of the April 6 movement, one of those which withdrew. Those killed in the uprising to oust Mubarak are referred to as “martyrs”. Several groups, including the liberal Wafd party, also said they were withdrawing from a rally in Suez, east of Cairo, because Salafists were using it for their own ends. Alongside the Islamic slogans, there were other chants in Tahrir yesterday, such as “People and army, hand in hand”. Some protesters have accused the Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak but now enjoys unprecedented freedom, of making a pact with the army. The group denies this although differences over how hard to push the army remain. Echoing the view held by many Islamists, preacher Mazhar Shaheen said in a sermon in Tahrir: “Our army will remain a red line, because it protected the great revolution ... No one can divide us and the army.” However, the Brotherhood has sought to heal some divisions with other groups. It made a statement of support for the April 6 movement, which in a rare move by the army, was singled out for trying to divide the people and the military. April 6 has been at the forefront of criticism of the military. “The Brotherhood rejects discrediting and distorting any revolutionary force that chooses to rally peacefully,” Mohamed Beltagy, a member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said.
Two killed in Sinai city rampageTwo people were killed as dozens of armed men in cars waving flags with Islamic slogans rampaged through the north Sinai city of El Arish yesterday, an Egyptian health ministry official said. Around 150 men in trucks and on motorbikes fired assault rifles into the air, forcing terrified residents into their homes, witnesses told AFP. “We have two bodies of civilians in the morgue now and 12 police conscripts being treated for injuries in hospital,” Hisham Shiha, a deputy health minister, told state television. Waving black flags which read “There is no God but Allah,” the men stormed through the city and tried to force their way into a police station but were confronted by policemen and soldiers.