Cairo: Thousands of Egyptians, mostly Islamists, on Friday converged on central Cairo to emphasise national unity and press the ruling military council to expedite the implementation of reforms promised after the ouster of long-standing president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
“The people want Egypt an Islamic country," chanted Islamists, who had flocked to Tahrir Square in Cairo since Thursday night. “Neither law nor constitution except for the Quran,” they shouted in unison as they marched through the square, a focal point for 18-day protests that forced Mubarak to step down in February.
Many Islamists had arrived at the square aboard buses carrying licence plates of Assiut, Minya and Beni Sueif, which are towns in southern Egypt.
They were holding up placards demanding the enforcement of the Islamic Sharia (law) in this predominantly country. Following the Friday noon prayers, they chanted: “Islamic. We want it (Egypt) Islamic.”
Meanwhile, other demonstrators shouted: “The people and the army are one hand”, reviving a slogan from the anti-Mubarak uprising. Two days before the protests, dubbed the “Friday of Popular Will and Unifying the Ranks”, liberal and Islamist powers agreed to brush aside their political differences and focus on “revolutionary demands” during the protests.
Fears arose after some Salafists (Muslim fundamentalists) had vowed to remove protesters, who have been camping out in Tahrir since July 8.
“The aim of the Friday demonstration in Tahrir Squre is to pressure the military council into fulfilling the demands of the revolutionaries,” said Nasr Abdel Salam, a leading Salafist.
The military council has been in control of Egypt since Mubarak’s toppling. The protest, the hugest since Mubarak’s ouster, came days before the former president, his two sons, interior minister and six senior policemen, are due to go on trial on charges of involvement in a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters earlier this year.
Their trial will be held in Cairo and broadcast live on official television, according to local media.
Activists are pushing the country’s military rulers to quicken the prosecution of officials from the Mubarak regime believed to have ordered the killing of protesters, stop military trials for civilians and promote social justice.
