CAIRO, Oct 19, 2012 (AFP)
CAIRO, Oct 19, 2012 (AFP)
Several thousand people rallied on Friday against Islamist influence over an assembly preparing Egypt’s new constitution, a week after a similar protest degenerated into clashes with religious conservatives.
The demonstrators marched from several points in Cairo to its central Tahrir Square, where scores were injured last week when the liberal and secular-leaning protesters clashed with Islamists.
“Freedom, justice, down with the constituent assembly,” they chanted, referring to the assembly picked by a now dissolved Islamist-dominated parliament.
They also chanted against Mohamed Badie, leader of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement which fielded President Mohamed Morsi in the May and June presidential election.
The protest was organised by several groups that helped galvanise the popular uprising which overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year and have now become opposed to what they call the Islamists’ grip on politics.
Across the city, the newly elected leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Saed al-Katatni, pledged in his acceptance speech to work for national unity.
Morsi had stepped down as the party’s chief on his election to head the country.
The Islamists’ opponents have petitioned the administrative court to annul the constituent assembly because of the mechanism used to select its members. The court is expected to deliver a verdict on October 23.
