Army Fires on Demonstrators in Cairo
July 8, 2013
Egyptian soldiers fired this morning on members of the Muslim Brotherhood staging a sit-in outside an army barracks in Cairo. At least 51 people were killed. The Brotherhood was protesting the overthrow of former President Mohamed Morsi, who is believed to be held under arrest within the barracks. The Brotherhood’s political wing—the Freedom and Justice Party that backed Morsi’s government—urges Egyptians to revolt against “those trying to steal their revolution with tanks.” Today’s violence follows an incident on July 5 when soldiers fired at protesters at the same location, killing three people and leaving dozens of others wounded.
The army ousted Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt’s first freely elected leader, on July 3 after mass anti-Morsi protests across the nation. Many Egyptians believed that Morsi was more interested in turning Egypt into an Islamist state than in dealing with its many problems.
Elsewhere in Cairo, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar University—Ahmed al-Tayeb, who is regarded as the highest authority in Sunni Islam—warns today of the danger of civil war. He states that he is going into seclusion until the violence ends.
Additional World Book articles:
- Tahrir Square
- The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
- Egypt (2011) (a Back in Time article)
- Egypt (2012) (a Back in Time article)
