Supporters of Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail announced on Friday that they would stage a sit-in at Tahrir Square, while other Salafi forces rejected the call.
Abu Ismail called on Islamists and liberals both to sit-in until the supplementary constitutional declaration is abolished.
Abu Ismail released a statement saying: “This protest is not only for Islamists, but for all Egyptians from different affiliations. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has granted itself sovereignty over the people by issuing the supplementary constitutional delcaration.”
The Nour Party rejected the sit-in because it did not have time to gather members for the protest, deputy party head Sayed Mostafa said.
Salafi Front spokesperson Khaled Saeed said that the front refuses to participate in the sit-in because it cannot bear the financial burden.
Protesters gathered in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday to participate in a protest called for by Islamists to support President Mohamed Morsy.
The preacher of the Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir said during his Friday sermon that the Egyptian people will defend legitimacy and do not accept guardianship over the elected president from the military, the judiciary, or any other body.
Sheikh Mazhar Shahin said that protesters are announcing from the square of the revolution and the martyrs that they do not accept the supplementary constitutional declaration.
Shahin called on the “conscious Egyptian people” to guard the revolution and protect the elected president from people who want him to fail and who seek to drive the country into a civil war.
Protesters demanded the annulment of the supplementary constitutional declaration, called on the military council to hand over full power to Morsy, and rejected the Supreme Constitutional Court decision against the reinstatement of Parliament.
Participants in the protest set up a stage near an American University in Cairo building at Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which broadcasted Qur’anic verses and provided updates on the events of the protest.
The square has been the site of an ongoing sit-in since the SCC overruled Morsy’s decree to reconvene the People’s Assembly.
Morsy on Sunday recalled the assembly, which had been dissolved by an SCC verdict on 14 June, and the assembly met on Tuesday. Tuesday evening, however, the SCC ruled to "halt" Morsy’s decree, saying the assembly remains dissolved. Under the supplementary constitutional declaration, the ruling military council acts as the legislature in the absence of the People’s Assembly.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, Jama'a al-Islamiya and its Construction and Development Party, the Salafi Front, the April 6 Youth Movement, the 25 January Revolution Board of Trustees, the Salafi Asala Party, and supporters of former presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail announced their intended participation in the protest.
Some liberal and secular parties boycotted the protest, including the Tagammu Party, the Free Egyptians Party, the Wafd Party and the Egyptian Socialist Party.
Edited translation from MENA
