As various political forces plan to participate in protests around the country on Friday, 8 July – including the recent addition of the Muslim Brotherhood – some are still calling on Egyptians to refrain from demonstrating.
Fliers signed by the "People's Committee to Defend Egypt" were distributed in Cairo’s metro system and a busy district in Alexandria in recent days, counseling people to stay away from the protests. The committee has not previously been a publicly visible organization.
“We should build our country, instead of being skeptical of those who protect us,” the flier reads, in reference to the military.
The flier also states that the 25 January revolution has achieved its objectives and lambastes the protesters for continuing to demonstrate.
"They are sitting relaxed, while ruining the country with your hands," the flier says to those who plan to participate. "They are deluding you that you are patriotic by protesting in this way."
The unknown committee accuses those calling for the protests of encouraging clashes with the army. The flier also includes a URL address for a YouTube video titled "April 6 and the parties' scandals".
The video shows a girl calling herself Shaimaa taking part in the talk show "48 Hours" during the 18-day uprising, calling the protesters “traitors”.
The girl, whose image is blurred, talks in detail about how she and other activists were trained by an unidentified Israeli organization in the United States and Qatar on how to overthrow the Mubarak regime.
Shaimaa further discusses the training and payment she received from the organization, which is much less than the payment received by heads of the April 6 Youth Movement and Kefaya. She goes on to criticize journalist Bilal Fadl and talk show host Mona Shazly, calling them liars and alleging that Fadl is a member of the April 6 Youth Movement.
Shortly after the TV appearance, Fadl claimed that the girl calling herself "Shaimaa" was in fact a reporter for a state newspaper and that Shazly had invited her to appear on her show.
The video also displays photographs claiming to document the relationship between pro-democracy activists and Israel.
The phone number provided on the flier was unavailable.
A separate anonymous flier was distributed at the same locations, calling for a boycott of the assets of telecom tycoon-turned-liberal activist Naguib Sawiris.
Sawiris, a Coptic Christian, recently posted on his Twitter account a drawing of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in conservative Muslim garb, for which he later apologized.
The flier calls for a boycott of companies of which Sawiris is part-owner, including Mobinil, Orascom Telecom and ONTV, in order to hurt his finances; the flier claims that Sawiris "does not understand anything except the language of money."
The flier also falsely condemns Sawiris for advocating the removal of Article 2 from the constitution, which states that Shariah is the principal source of Egyptian law.
