Confrontations took place between activists and Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Alexandria on Friday after protesters chanted against Brotherhood and the military council saying "Down with the Brothers," "The people want to overthrow the Brothers," and "Two untrustworthy: the military and the Brothers."
About 1,500 activists from the Communist Party, Adl Party, Wafd Party and Free Egyptians Party staged a protest against the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly outside the Qaed Ibrahim Mosque in Alexandria following Friday prayers.
Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood responded with chants such as "Islamic, Islamic" and "The people want to apply the Sharia." The imam of the mosque, Sheikh Ahmed al-Mahalawy, demanded in his Friday sermon that all sit-ins and demonstrations in Egypt be stopped "because their time has not come yet," adding that he prays to God that this time never comes.
He called on people to wait and see what the constituent assembly will do with the constitution, instead of waging a revolution before it even starts the drafting process.
He added that the people hold the supreme power over the constitution, and if the constitution does not fulfill their demands they could stage another uprising. He described forces that “raise their voices with the love of Egypt while doing the opposite in reality” as "hypocrites."
Some worshipers were agitated during the sermon and tried to interrupt him, others raised banners outside the mosque that read, "We want preachers who fear only God… No to Mahalawy's sermon at Qaed Ibrahim."
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
