Several thousand Egyptians on Dec. 23 rallied in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square to denounce violence against protesters, especially outraged by images of women protesters dragged by their hair, beaten and kicked by troops. The rally marked a week after deadly clashes erupted near Tahrir Square between protesters and the military. Seventeen protesters were killed over the past week. Last week’s violence erupted when military forces guarding the Cabinet building near the square tried to forcibly disperse a 3-week-old sit-in demanding that the ruling generals hand over power to a civilian authority.
Friday’s protest, named “Regaining honour and defending the revolution,” was backed by more than two dozen groups, among them newly formed political parties born out of the uprising. An unidentified scholar giving the Friday sermon in Tahrir Square blamed the military for divisions and called on the generals to give up power as the only solution to ending “dictatorship.” After the Friday prayers, worshippers began a march to Tahrir Square to join the rally. Among the dead in last week’s violence was 52-year-old Shaikh Emad Effat from the Al-Azhar mosque.
Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood stayed away from the demonstration at the square. The Brotherhood is so far the biggest winner in Egypt’s parliamentary elections and has distanced itself from the protesters’ demand for an immediate handover of power. The military’s timetable is to transfer power after a new president is elected by the end of June 2012.