December 06, 2012: The Egyptian army has deployed four tanks and three armored vehicles
outside the presidential palace, after the death of five people and injuring of at
least another 350 in the violent clashes last night between democrats and Islamists.
Tensions remain high, and again there were explosions this morning in the streets
of Cairo as well as attacks between the two factions, with stone throwing and Molotov
cocktails. Opposition leaders accuse the supporters of President Mohamed Morsi of
inciting violence and first attacking the peaceful demonstrators who have protested
for two days to say no "to the dictatorship of the Muslim Brotherhood and a constitution
written by the Islamists."
On 4 December, tens of thousands of people launched
the "last warning march," which began from the mosques of al-Rabaa Adawaya (Nasr)
and el-Nour (Abassya) and headed towards the presidential palace in Heliopolis. To
stop the Democrats, supporters of President Morsi organized a procession around the
building to defend their leader. The protests degenerated, until the climax of violence
reached yesterday evening. For the moment, the police have arrested 32 people. Meanwhile,
protests have spread to other cities in Egypt, and the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood
in Ismailia and Suez attacked.
The opposition is demanding Morsi strke down
laws that give full power (legislative, executive and judicial) in this transition,
and to revise the provisional constitution, written solely by the Islamists. Meanwhile,
several judges of the Constitutional Court have questioned Morsi's actions, and threatened
to boycott the constitutional referendum scheduled for December 15. Until that day,
the Islamists say they are "determined" to block any opposition action. If the new
constitution is passed, Egypt could turn into a confessional state, not based on the
principles of Sharia law, but on specific Koranic norms.