Cairo: Egypt’s president has warned he may be about to take measures he did not specify to “protect this nation.”
Mohammad Mursi’s warning came in a series of tweets posted on Sunday, two days after violent clashes between supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood and opposition protesters in Cairo.
At least 200 people were injured, some seriously, outside the Cairo headquarters of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s most dominant political group.
Mursi also warned that “appropriate measures” would be taken against politicians found to be behind Friday’s violence, regardless of their seniority. Anyone found to be using the media to “incite violence” will also be held accountable, he added.
Scores of Egyptian Islamists on Sunday rallied outside the state-run Media City near Cairo to protest against what they describe as private TV stations’ incitement of hate against the ruling Islamists.
The protesters chanted slogans against what they branded the “misleading media” amid tight security measures. They shouted: “The people want the media to be purged...the people want the application of God’s Sharia [law].” A large number of riot police were deployed nearby.
“The main causes of current chaos in Egypt are the misleading media, remnants of the former regime and the ruin front,” leading Islamist Salafist Assem Abdul Majid told the rally, referring to the opposition National Salvation Front. He added at the rally that a similar demonstration will be staged in the same place on Monday.
The rally was in response to calls from the powerful Islamists to protest at the liberal media’s coverage of recent clashes between supporters of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and opponents near the group’s headquarters in Cairo.
Organisers of the rally also threatened to hold protests at main offices of the opposition political parties. The threat prompted several such parties to evacuate their offices for fear of potential attacks.
Islamists accuse the secular-minded opposition of fomenting violence and seeking to topple Mursi, who is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood. The opposition, meanwhile, charges that Mursi is acting at his group’s command.
Islamists have been dominating Egypt’s political scene since the 2011 revolt that forced Husni Mubarak to step down after nearly 30 years in power.