Clashes, protests and even lynching sum up the hostile relation between the public and the opposition on one side, and the Muslim Brotherhood on the other side. Violent incidents that occurred during this week in several provinces across Egypt prove that a great many Egyptians are now against Brotherhood rule. Hundreds of protesters and activists in Alexandria marched from Al-Qaed Ibrahim Mosque to the City Council, which is the local municipality's temporary headquarters, protesting against the Muslim Brotherhood Friday. This came days after the governor, Mohamed Abbas, openly accused his deputy, Hassan Al-Prince, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, of Brotherhoodising the governorate. The protesters demanded an immediate investigation into statement made by Abbas in which he admitted that the city's administrative body was “Brotherhoodised” behind his back. Protesters chanted slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Prince, such as “Alexandria is free and Al-Prince is out”, and “No to the Brotherhoodisation of state institutions”. They also lifted banners carrying Al-Prince's photo, with the words “Wanted for popular justice” written below. Leaked reports from the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) revealed that Al-Prince would be appointed Alexandria governor in the imminent governors reshuffle. At a Monday press conference, Abbas, who was appointed by President Mohamed Morsi but who is not affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, accused Al-Prince of crediting an FJP-run NGO with distributing bread to citizens' homes, a move he described as “an unacceptable violation”. Abbas also criticised the FJP member for transferring the head of the governorate's secretariat-general, Ahmed Al-Edkawi, and appointing heads of governorate municipalities without his consent. The governor said he had referred his complaints on Al-Prince to the presidency, underlining his rejection of “using the governorate for the benefit of any particular political group”. He went on to charge Al-Prince with “using governorate resources to serve the Muslim Brotherhood”. Elsewhere, at Al-Morsi Abul-Abbas Mosque, scores of Sufis demonstrated to express their support for Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb against what they deem attempts to undermine his reputation in order to Brotherhoodise his post. The demonstrators also denounced calls by some Salafist parties and Islamist currents to disband the National Security apparatus, saying they stand against attempts to eliminate state bodies. Critics of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have charged that the latter is attempting to fill key government administrative positions with its supporters in order to “Brotherhoodise” the state apparatus. In Sharqiya governorate, a mob lynched the teenage son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader Thursday. According to a security source, the teenager was accused of killing a man over Facebook comments critical of the Islamist movement. Youssef Abdel-Salam, 16, allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire indiscriminately, killing a passer-by and wounding another after a heated argument with a man who had openly criticised the Brotherhood on the Internet. His action sparked fury in Kattawiya, a village in the Nile Delta province where Youssef's father, Rabie Abdel-Salam, is an official in the local branch of the FJP, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, formerly headed by President Morsi. The angry mob surrounded Abdel-Salam's house seeking revenge, but the family refused to give Youssef up and hurled stones from inside the residence at protesters. Police tried in vain to contain the violence and attempted to evacuate the Abdel-Salam family, but the mob set fire to the house and in the melee grabbed Youssef and lynched him. The mob beat him up “and dragged him across 500 metres to his death”, the FJP said on its Facebook page. Nonetheless, Egypt's ruling FJP denied that the killing of the son of one of its leaders in Sharqiya governorate was political. “The incident is not politically-motivated,” continued the statement on the Facebook page. Also this week, clashes erupted late Sunday between opposition protesters and Muslim Brotherhood members in the governorate of Kafr Al-Sheikh. The fight started, according to Al-Ahram Arabic website, when several assailants, identified as anti-Brotherhood, attacked a hall where members of the Muslim Brotherhood were holding a Labour Day celebration. Police rushed to the scene in an attempt to end the conflict. The situation remains tense. Kafr Al-Sheikh has witnessed many clashes over the past year, mostly between police and anti-Brotherhood protesters. Several demonstrations have been detained in Kafr Al-Sheikh after demanding that the governor, Saad Al-Husseini, who is a Muslim Brotherhood member, be replaced. Addressing the decline in popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, former parliamentarian and prominent researcher of Islamist groups Amr Al-Shobaki said: “Some of those who oppose the Islamist group contest the Brotherhood's structure, while others generally suffer a phobia of Islamists.” “The Brotherhood has managed to create hostile relations with many institutions since President Morsi took office last June. The Brotherhood's tense relations with the judicial authority comes as the main reason for why the group's popularity has been dropping with different political groups,” Al-Shobaki said in his column in Al-Masry Al-Youm daily. “The Brotherhood pushed Morsi to sack the former prosecutor-general and appoint a new one through the executive authority. The Brotherhood's battle with the prosecutor-general has caused the Egyptian people's trust in the group to decline,” he added. The Islamist group has dealt with the judiciary in the same way Mubarak did, he concluded. Al-Shobaki also condemned Muslim Brotherhood members for clashing with revolutionary youth in front of the presidential palace, the Muqattam headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other areas across the country. The only way the Muslim Brotherhood can regain the trust of the Egyptian people, he said, would be to minimise their use of hate speech and violence.
