The Muslim Brotherhood will take to the streets after Friday prayers at mosques in an attempt to stop the military juggernaut that has flattened the government of Mohammed Morsi, whose only apparently chance to change the course of events is the use of violence.
Continuing clashes prompted the army on Thursday to prepare for the worst and surround Cairo University, where deadly clashes already have left more than a dozen people dead and injured more than 200 others.
Morsi refuses to surrender, even though he and his government are under virtual house arrest, the military refuses to call the coup a coup, and promises of peaceful protests can be dismissed as code words for violence.
Despite the massive opposition against Morsi, the fact is that his government of the Muslim Brotherhood alliance with the even more radical Salafist Islamic party won a majority of the vote a year ago.
The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy called for “peaceful protests” on Friday throughout the country on Friday after Friday prayers.
The Muslim Brotherhood has warned that open suppression by the military regime, which has gagged Brotherhood communication channels, will leave its allies with no choice but to use violence.
The radical movement, which was outlawed under the Mubarak regime even though it had a small number of legislators in the Parliament, said it would maintain the peace.
“The issue now is the position of the free world that is pushing the country to a state of chaos and pushing groups other than the Brotherhood to return to the idea of change by force,” said. Mohamed El-Beltagy, a leading member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party,
The military regime has swiftly and skillfully disabled the Morsi government, arresting its senior leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood is getting a taste of its own medicine it dished out to Mubarak after the massive street rebellion that forced him out of office more than two years ago..
Morsi, like Mubarak, said he would rather than die than surrender.
“It is better for a president, who would otherwise be returning Egypt to the days of dictatorship, from which God and the will of the people has saved us, to die standing like a tree,” his spokesman Ayman Ali said.