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Fireworks light the sky opponents of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi celebrate in Tahrir Square in Cairo (Amr Nabil/AP/PA).
IN THEIR TENS of thousands, they cheered, ignited firecrackers and honked horns as soon as the army announced President Mohamed Morsi’s rule was over, ending Egypt’s worst crisis since its 2011 revolt.
Camped out in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square for a week, the anti-Morsi protesters let loose with an outburst of joy when military chief General Adel Fattah al-Sisi brought them the news they all were waiting to hear.
As the din rang out for over an hour in Tahrir, epicentre of the Arab Spring uprising that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, groups of overjoyed revellers carried members of the security forces on their shoulders as heroes.
Across town near Nasr City, where Morsi’s Islamists had gathered in a counter-demonstration, one celebrator Omar Sherif said: “It’s a new historical moment. We get rid of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood”.
(Image: Nariman El-Mofty/AP/PA)
The protesters had been forced to wait anxiously until the announcement at around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), with the crowd building up slowly as day turned to night.
“Egypt, Egypt” and “Leave, Leave,” they chanted outside the defence ministry building, as reports came in that the army was deploying dozens of armoured vehicles near Islamist gatherings elsewhere in the capital.
With broad grins, they sang patriotic songs they have become accustomed to hearing as the same tunes have been pumped out on state television in the weeks leading up to the crisis.
“Morsi deserves his end. He was the president of the Muslim Brotherhood, not of Egypt,” said Cairo resident Amr Mohammed, who carried his 40-day-old daughter in his arms as he marched to the Ittihadiya presidential palace.
A group of housewives put a table in the street and handed out dates and free cups of water, as celebrations erupted when a television station reported that Morsi had been placed under house arrest.
Upon hearing the rumour, one elderly man kneeled down on an Egyptian flag and said “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
That report proved unfounded, but officials did say security forces had imposed a travel ban on Morsi and his top Islamist allies over their alleged involvement in a 2011 prison escape.
(Image:Khalil Hamra/AP/PA)
Abdel Khalek Abo Risha, 56, who came to the protest from Tanta city in the Nile Delta, said: “I only expect Morsi to be toppled. No other options”.
Nehal Serry, a woman who helped to organise the refreshments, said: “This is for the sake of Egypt. We are celebrating that we are getting rid of Morsi”.
The gathering in Tahrir dwarfed a rally by the embattled president’s supporters in Nasr City.
“Come here O Sisi, Morsi isn’t my president,” the protesters chanted, referring to army chief and defence minister, General Sisi.
The powerful military had issued a 48-hour deadline on Monday for Morsi to meet the “people’s demands”, a day after millions of protesters took to the streets across the troubled country calling for him to resign.
But thousands of people had gathered in Nasr City in a show of support for Morsi, despite an attack by a group of men that killed 16 of them and left 200 injured overnight.
That was before the military moved in to disperse them, however, with AFP correspondents reporting they had seen dozens of armoured personnel carriers ominously heading to Islamist gatherings at Cairo University, Heliopolis, and Nasr City.
A military officer said later that the “Islamists are not allowed to get out of Rabaa Square today, so that they can’t cause any chaos”.
Dozens of military armoured personnel carriers completely surrounded the square, with troops putting up barbed wire and helicopters buzzing overhead.
Those inside could be heard firing birdshot, although they were outgunned and remained stuck behind the barricades.
(Image: Amr Nabil/AP/PA)
Army vehicles surrounded the protest outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Nasr City, where Morsi supporters have been camping out for days vowing to defend his legitimacy.
“It’s a coup d’etat against an elected president,” said Ahmed Abulmagd in Nasr City. “Morsi was betrayed.”
Other parts of the capital were eerily quiet, as many chose to stay at home in fear of becoming caught up in more bloodshed.
“I’m so worried, the future of my country will be written in the next few minutes,” said one taxi driver as he waited for passengers in a neighbourhood where the shops were all boarded up.
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Well, for excitement it certainly beats the hell out of our elections. Maybe we can introduce this sort of thing instead of referendums?
Hopefully people of Egypt will be better off without Islamist leader like Morsi. Remember….the best is to keep the religion out of politics.
The protesers wanted Mubarak out and free elections. They got it and Mosri was democratically elected. Now the protesters want him out too.
You can’t have you’re cake and eat it.
Try telling the Minister for fornication that :-D
What they originally wanted and still do is a secular democratic government.
Why not? Why can’t you have your cake and eat it. What’s the point of having cake if not to eat it?
I love cake
Exactly.
You eat some cake, you have some cake.
All is good
Why does everything have to be taken to extremes?
The cake is a lie
The CIA put the cake in front of you…
And fine wines!!
cake for some, miniature American flags for all
Never understood that saying , what is the point of having a cake if you can’t eat the fu( king thing ?
You have a cake, you eat the cake , the cake is gone. You no longer have the cake. So you cannot have the cake and eat it. It’s one or the other.
Cheers thanks for explanation , now I want cake
Don’t eat it…
What do you want to do with it if you don’t f@@ling eat it?
Put it in a glass case and observe its gradual decomposition as a scientific study or art exhibit?
Preserve it and take it to your grave as sustenance for the afterworld??
Another one bites the dust…. Hopefully they’ll get real genuine freedom…
Great to see the Islamist agenda stopped dead in its tracks. Hopefully it will spread to other countries like Iran where these medieval nut jobs are in charge.
Maybe we should send our army into Dáil Éireann
That’s original
The Egyptian elections were just a shady Pyramid scheme.
Can someone explain what is likely to happen next, a democratically elected president ousted, am I right in thinking a civil war is on the horizon or military rule?? Doesn’t sound like progress to me. Do people protesting know what’s at stake?
I wonder if the celebrations will die down when it dawns on them that they’re now living under a military dictatorship which has suspended their constitution and these dictatorships aren’t usually well renowned for keeping promises about holding democratic elections.
Israel’s choices as to whom governs their most populous neighbour.
1. A Muslim dominated democracy.
2. A Military dominated junta bought and paid for by it’s greatest friend the USA.
No prizes as to what they selected.
Cheap holiday deals in Egypt ahoy…
Looks like Chicago tonite.. Happy 4th to all the yanks that visit here !
the president of Egypt was elected by the majority of the people of Egypt.
The Former President of Egypt don’t you mean? ?
Dangerous precedent here. If Morsi was a secular leader and the Islamists staged a coup similar to this, would the world stand by? Not at all. There needs to be stability in the region, not constant changes because people are frustrated, he was in office less than a year.
What if the next leader, be them Islamist, Christian or Secular, can they be ousted because they have not fulfilled their promises in a year? It just spells trouble and is worrying. Hopefully the next president gets more time.
Good point Adam
Leaving aside the political ramifications for the moment, what about the reported ninety plus rapes against women in the last four days, who were just protesting democratically?. That speaks volumes. I don’t know what it tells us, but there is something fundamentally wrong, when a rebellion of any kind, leads to this sort of disgusting behaviour. I’ve no doubt though, that the answer to this question, will sadly remain low on the agenda of those who ultimately gain power.
Oh Dear – Man gets elected, the opposition who lost ferment anarchy and now backed by army and certain western states he’s gone. And in six months time when Cairo looks and feels like Damacus/Beirut/Baghdad/Kabul, the same western dumb asses will be scratching their heads as another middle eastern state goes down the tubes.
This is bad…
Morsi was useless, and didn’t fulfil his democratic mandate, so it’s understandable that the people who gave him that mandate would want him to go. It’s also understandable why the military would feel that it had the will of the people behind them to remove him. Democracy is not just about elections – there’s a duty to do what you were elected to do.
Still, he was democratically elected, so I can fully understand why the Muslim Brotherhood and his other supporters would feel totally disenfranchised. The worrying implication is that the MB (not just in Egypt, either) would lose faith in democracy and the political process, would become marginalised as they were before 2011, and that would be very dangerous.
It’s crucial that the MB aren’t outlawed, are still allowed to participate in the democratic project, but hard to imagine why they would willingly want to engage and cooperate with that project after this.
Seeing this level of people power in the defining of their own national identity is in one way great to see. But I’m afraid they’re celebrating too soon. I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and I’m afraid there will be more bloodshed.
Morsi needed to go, but this was an extremely dangerous – and undemocratic – way to go about it.
It is very easy for us in the west to shrug this off. It has a direct effect on us and we have had a huge influence on the situation. Wouldnt trade places with my contemporaries – keep the kids safe
I salute the people of Egypt.Fair play to them,at least they have balls.The Irish government are walking all over it’s people,and there is not a sound out of them.FF/FG,all the same bullshit.Fg,calling for more spending in opposition,and accusing FF of wrecking the country,which they did.This government have destroyed the Irish spirit of get up and do someting,at the same time as continiously spending money in all the wrong directions.The Irish spirit is broken down by a vested interest media.We have become lazy and tranquil.Cyprus took money from personal bank accounts,and do you think Ireland is any different?They were just more sly,or cute,but the same result.Ireland wake up,we need change and fast.Here’s to the people of Egypt.
I wonder if the celebrations will die down when it dawns on them that they’re now living under a military dictatorship which has suspended their constitution and these dictatorships aren’t usually well renowned for keeping promises about holding democratic elections.
To quote Ken Livingston “if democracy changed anything it would be abolished ” Hamas won Palestinian elections seven years ago they were banned by the West and the loser Abass was installed as President.
Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood won last year the minority mob took to the streets the army used the opportunity to stage a coup d’eat both results abolished
“Protests change nothing”
Can those words now be banned in all future comments sections?
All this fighting for democracy. The concept of democracy is freedom of choice. So you get to choose between two major parties. Both indistinguishable. Then you get 5 years of a dictatorship. So it goes on. Instead of having a single dictator for 20 or 30 years, you get to have a different one every 5 years.
Private villa for rent in Shaerem el Shake, direct flights from Dublin, €2.57 per week including utilities.
Where would you get it?
Some countries continuously prove my theory. Some nations work better with dictators as leaders. Democracy isn’t for everyone.
Nonsense. They’ve had democracy for all of one year. It’s ridiculously early in any democratic project to be jumping to such a definitive and groundless conclusion.
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