Cairo Diary, June 10: Protesting While Fasting

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and the UAE showed their support for the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, and the army's new grip on power, by presenting Egypt with eight billion dollars in aid. Kuwait followed suit and pledged an additional four billion on Wednesday. The Tamarod movement has come out against Egypt's new constitutional declaration, which sets the terms for how the interim leadership will govern in the coming months, outlines the new constitutional drafting process and sets a roadmap for new elections. The document, however, retains many controversial elements from earlier iterations and sparked harsh criticism from the moment it was issued. Tamarod's complaints: the declaration panders to the Salafis and the army, and grants the president near unlimited powers. In the ten days since June 30, there has been an uptick in sectarian violence across the country. Egypt has also just changed its policy regarding Syrian asylum seekers. The latter are now required to obtain a visa and a security clearance prior to entering the country. On July 8, 276 Syrians were reportedly denied entry to Egypt. Not a great few days.

The Embattled Pro-Morsi Camp

Back at Rabaa el Adaweya---where the pro-Morsi forces are camped out---you can tell it's Ramadan: silver sparkling streamers cross back and forth overhead and glitter and blind you in the morning sunlight. People are tired. There is a march going on, but none of the jogging military-looking exercises of earlier visits. The other two times I came there were groups of young to middle-aged men jogging in formation wearing helmets and carrying sticks. Now the helmets have been traded in for sun hats and the sticks lie discarded on the ground.  Those walking and chanting beckon to those lying in tents to join them, but they gain few followers. Though the encampment here is referred to as a protest, this morning, the scene hardly merits the term. People are worn out. They are also hungry. Many people sleep; some read their Qurans or the day's newspapers. There is a woman selling sunhats on a mat on the ground. A family I met on my first day here have gone---they were there to sell food to the protesters and there is no work for them when people are fasting during daylight hours. Other food carts are packed up and sit unused. I approach Ahmed Ragheb, a young bearded Arabic teacher from Damietta and a member of the Brotherhood. He came to Cairo on a bus with a large group from his hometown on June 28. On Friday he will have been camped out here for two weeks. He'd like to be home with his wife and son for Iftar, the Ramadan evening meal. But "God willing," he says, "we will be here until Eid"---the end of Ramadan. Eid, unfortunately, won't come for a month. Ahmed doesn't look too happy about it. "Morsi didn't shut down any channels," he says, drawing a stark contrast between the army's actions in the first 24 hours of its rule and those of the deposed President. Unlike Morsi, the military has shut down three Islamist-run channels. The media war continues with no state or private channels showing footage of the beleaguered pro-Morsi camp. "The Egyptian media hasn't come here," he says, "Why didn't they take pictures of el Nahdha [the square at Cairo University where 18 were killed on July 2]. Are they afraid of us?. . . Is it because we're the majority?" From what I've seen, that does not seem to be the case. But that is actually part of the problem. Everyone perceives his or her own side to be the majority. And one side can rightly claim to have turned out an electoral majority to put Morsi in office, while the other other side can rightly claim to have put more than 10 million people in the streets to get him out of office. People here are almost desperate to recount their stories. And though Ahmed is part of the Brotherhood, about half of the people who pipe up tell me that they are not members of the Islamist organization. For the most part, people take turns speaking, and though I am surrounded by a throng of angry, frustrated, fasting men, they take care to leave a space behind me so I do not feel nervous. "There's nothing called the ballot box now," says one man. "Complete military coup" says another in English. Ahmed and others I talk to still say that they expect Morsi to return, though at this point, the circumstances under which that might happen are nearly impossible to imagine. When I say I have a question for an official Brotherhood spokesperson, Yasir Zakaria Abdel Badie, an agricultural engineer from Minya in Upper Egypt, immediately offers to escort me. He comes equipped with a parasol that he holds over my head as we walk, under a baking hot sun, to the media office. The man I am looking for isn't there at the moment but I take the number of someone else and promise to follow up a bit later. Afterwards, as I approach the exit, I see that a crowd has formed around a woman. She seems to have passed out from the heat: It's hard to spend all day outside without drinking any water. Soon after I leave, the chief prosecutor issues a warrant for the arrest of ten persons, including Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood Supreme Guide---effectively its spiritual leader.  All ten stand accused of instigating violence that resulted in the deaths of 55 Morsi supporters on Monday. The accusation is that Morsi supporters are actually responsible, legally, for ostensibly defensive actions taken against them by the military. I'm confused. But many pro-Morsi say the charges are a justification to break up the Rabaa el Adaweya protest as Badie is rumored to be there. 200 people are already in custody in connection with Monday's events---allegedly Brotherhood members---while an additional 450 have been let out on bail. None are members of the armed forces. For my part, from the videos I have seen I find it difficult to believe that there were even 650 protesters at the scene.

Downtown

I pass through Tahrir today too. It's closed off and there aren't any protests going on. In the center there are some tatty-looking tents.  At the periphery, materials emblazoned with the image of Armed Forces chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi are on offer: There's a lot of Anti-American sentiment about these days.  Nevertheless, I appreciated this distinction, drawn in a banner displayed a few blocks from Tahrir: It's a distinction not everyone who objects current U.S. policy---either because the U.S. allegedly supported the coup or because the U.S. allegedly supported Morsi---remembers to make these days. Though in less tense times I have been amazed by Egyptians' willingness to differentiate between governments whose policies they disagree with and their peoples---perhaps because they themselves had a leader for 30 years that they didn't choose.

Trying and Failing to go to the Museum

Tomorrow I'm going to try to be a tourist. I tried this evening, when I stopped by the Egyptian Museum, hoping to chat with someone there or, failing that, to catch a glimpse of a sphinx or a Ramses statue in the garden. It's really a magnificent building---and it is the world's unrivaled warehouse of all things ancient Egypt. But I didn't get into it.  Two sand-colored tanks blocked my path---or didn't really block it but made me think twice about entering. Summoning my courage, I crossed the street and asked a soldier if anyone was still inside the museum. He answered no, but said I should come back tomorrow. I think I will. For more of Laura Dean’s Cairo Diary:

• Cairo Diary, July 10 (Early Morning): Ramadan in the Revolution
• Cairo Diary, July 8: Piecing Through What Happened and Waiting for the Parasol Revolution
• Cairo Diary, July 7: An Outside Perspective
• Cairo Diary, July 6: A New Prime Minister, Maybe
• Cairo Diary, July 5: “Friday of Rejection”—and Violence
• Cairo Diary, July 4: The First Day of the Rest of Egypt’s Life