Millions have taken to the streets across Egypt calling for President Mohamed Morsi to step down on the first anniversary of his presidency.
Adel Abdel Ghafar, a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, is in Cairo. He told SBS reporter Alice Mulheron the next 24 hours will be crucial for Egypt's future.
Today Egypt has seen some of the largest if not the largest protests ever in its history, with multiple demonstrations happening in various governeries across Egpyt. In Cairo specifically, there were two major demonstrations against the Muslim Brotherhood, one in Tahrir Square, and one around the Presidential Palace and the numbers, according to the army, are up in the millions.
Why is this happening?
This is happening because there's brewing discontent against the Muslim Brotherhood. President Mohamed Morsi, it's been, today has been his one year anniversary being president and there's lots of discontent against his rule. He has been ineffective economically, the economy has not been doing very well, prices are higher, fuel prices are higher, everything is much worse than it was before and he's taking the blame for that.
There are reports the opposition has called for the army to step in.
One week ago the head of the army, General Sisi, issued a stern warning to the president and the Muslim Brotherhood and also the opposition to attempt to really negotiate a peaceful solution and this has not happened. What we have seen today is the Egyptian people really rise up against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood which they see has been ineffective, For a year they have ruled, and they have not ruled Egypt successfully and millions of people came out today to say no to the rule of the Muslim brotherhood.
President Morsi has said there needs to be dialogue and isn't showing any sign of stepping aside. Will the protests continue?
The protesters and opposition are demanding he steps down within the next two days, or there will be a call for a general strike. I believe that this would be a very bad thing for Egypt. I think the best solution now is for the President to reach out to the opposition and actually engage in dialogue to put back the country away from the brink. Mr Morsi is actually Egypt's first democratically elected president, he won with a 51% majority, which is a very, very slim majority, and needs a lot of consensus and trust building with the opposition parties to work with them towards a better Egypt but he has ruled as if he has an absolute majority. He does not. He sits on 51% majority which is very, very slim and decreasing by the day.
Are these protests largely peaceful, as some reports describe? We've also heard reports of casualties.
For the past few days, protests have been gearing up and there have been some attacks on some of the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood across Egypt and again this is a manifestation of the brewing anger against the Brotherhood in different, various sectors and segments of Egyptian society. There has also been reports of casualties on the opposition side in defending some of their headquarters. However, let's say that the major disasters has not happened, because there are actually, there's a big demonstration going on in Cairo that is pro-President Morsi, in another area of Cairo, that has thousands of people too, so again we're talking in one city, thousands and thousands of people on both sides protesting, and these scenes have not yet met. So it would be complete civil war if they do, and it's in everyone's interests, both the opposition and the President, to de-escalate the situation in the next 24 hours or risk a real explosion.
Are these protests different from what we saw a year ago?
What we were seeing a year ago is protests against an autocratic leader who ruled Egypt without any elections for 30 years, President Hosni Mubarak. What makes this different is President Morsi is actually a democratically elected president, however inefficient he is, so we cannot progress and attempt to dismantle him and take him out of power like Mubarak, because he is democratically elected. However, his style of ruling has to change and he has to build consensus and attempt to bring in the opposition to rule Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood on alone has shown that it is incapable of ruling Egypt on its own. So it needs to bring in the opposition and rule in coalition for the benefit of all Egyptians.
I think the next 24-48 hours will actually show what will happen in Egypt. The army will force people to actually have dialogue and if the army sees any sign of bloodshed it might feel that it will have to interfere.
