Hundreds flocked to Tahrir Square Friday to protest against a recent cabinet decision to expand the scope of the infamous Emergency Law.
On Saturday, the cabinet announced following a meeting with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), that it would begin enforcing the Emergency Law, even though the military council had previously decided to abolish it by the end of September. According to the Middle East News Agency, the law has been expanded to cover offenses such as damaging state property, disrupting people’s work, blocking roads through demonstrations, and spreading false news and information. By the 25 January revolution, the law was only being used to criminalize drug and terrorism-related offenses.
In Tahrir, people chanted "Down with the Emergency Law! Down with military rule!"
Imam Mazhar Shaheen of the Omar Makram mosque said in his Friday sermon that revolutionaries are not thugs. "Authorities in Egypt have to achieve the revolution's demands before 25 January 2012. Arbitrary detentions have to stop. The Emergency Law has to fall, not be activated."
"I am here today to express my rejection of the Emergency Law," said Osama al-Saeed, an independent activist. "The amendments are a green light to kill more protesters. The SCAF has been a failure in ruling Egypt and all its actions are against the revolution."
Salafi groups were present at the protest holding banners reading, "No to the Emergency Law. No to military trials." Human rights groups say that some 12,000 civilians have been tried before military courts since February.
"The Emergency Law has always targeted dissidents to shut up opposition voices," said Ashraf Abdel Moneim of the Salafi Front. "There is no reason, nor need, to activate the Emergency Law."
Abdel Moneim added that holding the Israeli Embassy attack responsible for the decision to expand the Emergency Law is only a scapegoat.
On 9 September, protesters marched on the Israeli Embassy in Giza and tore down a wall recently built by the government to protect the building. Some managed to break into one of the embassy's annexes and throw documents they found out the windows, showering protesters below with papers. The demonstrators' anti-Israel fervor follows the killing of six Egyptian border guards by Israeli soldiers while pursuing militants that had killed eight Israelis in southern Israel earlier in the day on 18 August. Protesters have been demanding the freeze of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel.
"Friday's incidents are full of mystery. There was a deliberate security void that led to the storming of the embassy. There was a deliberate faking of chaos by the authorities in order to take back the freedom that people attained during the revolution," said Moneim. He also expressed his fear that the Emergency Law will affect the electoral process and give the police more ability to suppress political opinions.
Activists held a press conference on Thursday at the New Ghad Party headquarters, where they announced the protest would be peaceful, start after Friday prayers, and end at 6 pm. They also said they should not be held responsible for any violent acts that might take place outside Tahrir Square.
Thirty-three parties and movements have announced their participation in the protest, according to a statement issued at the press conference, including the New Ghad, Tagammu, Nasserist, Gabha, Nahda, the Egyptian Current parties and other political movements. The statement noted that protesters will return to Tahrir Square and other squares to denounce the Emergency Law and agitate to achieve the rest of the revolution's demands.
Some political forces are boycotting the protest, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Jama'a al-Islamiya and the Egyptian Citizen Party, while the Wafd and Wasat parties have not announced their stances.
"Egypt is currently going through a very sensitive stage that requires consensus before taking any steps," said Saad al-Katatny, secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party.
