Brotherhood condemns attacks on its supporters

The violence that broke out in Cairo Monday evening has been met with cries of condemnation by the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims that their pro-democracy protesters were subjected to unprovoked attack by a combination of central security forces and “street thugs.”

Clashes lasted throughout the night in Giza, near the sit-in held by Morsi supporters—now in its third week—and around Ramses Square, leaving a total of 7 dead, and 261 wounded, according to reports from the Health Ministry.

Senior Brotherhood member Mahmoud Ghozlan describes the current situation in Egypt as the direct result of “American hypocrisy” and its instigation of the June 30 protests, in which a record number of civilians took to the streets to protest Brotherhood rule. In an editorial posted Tuesday on the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party website under the title “America’s role in the military coup”, Ghozlan criticizes the US for “committing the same mistakes [in Egypt] as it has in other nations,” and warns that “it will reap nothing but more resentment, hatred, and damnation, not only from Egyptians, but from every Arab, Islamic nation, every third world nation, and all free nations of the world.”

Meanwhile, official Brotherhood spokesperson Gehad al-Haddad also denounced the US government, tweeting, ‘Either US is complicit in planning/executing #Military_Coup or hv come 2 welcome it,’ and questioning it’s continued military aid “despite ousting Egypt’s [first] democratically elected president.”

Haddad also argued that the recent military intervention, or the “coup,” has “given logic to the argument of violence.”

For his part, senior Brotherhood official Mohamed al-Beltagy strongly condemned the military for instigating Monday’s night’s attack on Morsi supporters, stating through social media and to the Islamist Yarmuk satellite channel that “the 10th of Ramadan will be the second day of crossing on which the nation will be liberated, as Sinai was in 1973.”

A tone of defiance characterizes a statement on the Freedom and Justice Party’s Facebook page, attributed to Essam al-Erian. “Surround us, arrest us, confiscate what you will of our hardly-earned funds, put us on trial in front of your biased judges and military tribunals, imprison us for many years, open fire on us with live ammunition,” the leading Brotherhood figure writes. “But you will never weaken our resolve, and you will be chased by blood in your sleep, and during your waking hours, and you will no longer be able to look your children and families in their eyes.”

Meanwhile, calls for escalation continue to be made across social media sites by Muslim Brotherhood officials, echoed by their supporters.