In a working class neighborhood of Cairo, the support for the army remains overwhelming. *** In the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba on Thursday, a teacher, Mohamed Abdul Hafez, said the hundreds of Islamists who died the day before mattered little to him. “It’s about the security of the country,” Mr. Hafez said. A man who sold eggs said the army had waited too long to attack the Islamists. An accountant said the police had stormed the protests with an efficiency he had not seen in years. ....... In Imbaba, a neighborhood that seems to catch all the nation’s political currents in its congested alleyways, many people regretted the bloodshed. But they asserted that the alternative was worse. The Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Morsi’s political party, was holding back the country with endless sit-ins and protests, many said. And the longer the army waited to act, the weaker Egypt seemed to them. That conviction only grew stronger amid reports about Islamist violence, including the storming of a government building in Giza early Thursday. Mr. William, a Coptic Christian, was preoccupied by a spate of attacks on churches and Christian homes across the country, a spasm of collective scapegoating by some of Mr. Morsi’s supporters. “They won’t go easily,” he said, adding that churches “are still being burned.” .... “I don’t like conspiracy theories,” said Ahmed Mustafa, 37, an accountant who sat in a cafe. “I’m against violence. I gave my vote to Morsi, and he disappointed me. They did things their way, and it was a false way.” The authorities acted responsibly on Wednesday, he said, moving during daylight, so that “everything was obvious,” rather than under the cover of darkness. “We delegated them to fight terrorism,” he said of the military. “And the Brotherhood wanted to show themselves as victims.” ...... Openly, people praised the army, which deposed Mr. Morsi on July 3 and has remained Egypt’s leading power ever since. More quietly, some expressed doubts about the rush to support the military’s assertion of its authority after two and a half years of popular protests aimed at transforming Egypt from an authoritarian government to a democracy. She was not a supporter of Mr. Morsi, who critics said had seemed to grow more feckless by the month. But there was no solution to be found in the violence, and Egypt’s growing comfort with nationalism, she said. “We have this thing about us, that the Egyptian Army is untouchable,” Israa said. “So many want Egypt ruled with an iron grip,” she said. “No one cares that leaders might be lying to the people. People are in a coma.” ...... In an alleyway nearby filled with children, Mohamed el-Mehdi, 30, took his infant son for a stroll before the curfew that Egypt’s leaders imposed after the fighting on Wednesday. Between the self-interested, unverified claims coming from all sides, “the facts are not clear,” Mr. Mehdi said. “We want reconciliation, but we can’t reconcile with a group that we’re all calling to be banned,” he said, referring to the Brotherhood. “Most of Egypt is divided. And their differences are playing out in the streets.” (By KAREEM FAHIM. Asmaa Al Zohairy contributed reporting) ***
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:56:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015