The mutual antagonism between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis runs long and deep. Even the current situation following the recent announcement in which Minister of Defence and Military Production Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi made it clear that he sided with the popular drive calling for Morsi to step down has not induced the Salafis to join forces with the Muslim Brothers in what some observers describe as a crisis of the Islamist project as a whole, rather than just a Muslim Brotherhood crisis. “We've been burned by the Muslim Brothers too many times,” an official from the Salafist Calling, the largest Salafist organisation in Egypt, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “Our battle is with the Muslim Brotherhood which sought to monopolise power for itself. It dismissed Khaled Alameddin as advisor to the president for no apparent or logical reason. It rejected Salafi candidates for five ministerial posts in the Hisham Kandil government and offered them only one, which the Salafi leaders rejected.” According to other Salafist sources, early on the morning of Monday 1 July, Salafist Calling and Nour Party officials conducted a spate of meetings and communications with leaders from the Armed Forces, the police, the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya in the hope of restoring calm and reaching a new formula for consensus between Islamist forces, opposition forces, the presidency and the military. They said that the army remained committed to its position that it would impose a roadmap of its own if political forces did not reach a solution within 48 hours that would meet the demands of the people. Later Monday evening, the Nour Party met with Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya leaders who had declared their intent to lead Islamist forces in a campaign “in all the squares of Egypt” in opposition to the attempt to force Morsi out of office and to the intervention of the army in politics. Meanwhile, the Salafist Calling communicated with police officials who confirmed that they sided with the millions of people who were demonstrating for the fall of the regime. Yasser Burhami, deputy head of the Salafist Calling, urged members of this organisation and the Nour Party, its political arm, to take the appropriate decision for this moment. The Salafist Calling then issued a statement calling on President Morsi to resign so that the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis would not be excluded from the political process. According to informed sources, Burhami told the Muslim Brotherhood leaders that if they did not want to hand the opportunity to the Islamists' adversaries to exclude Islamists, Morsi should take the initiative to announce early presidential elections before he is forced to do so by the army after the grace period lapsed. Therefore, the largest bloc of Salafis has made it clear that they support the army's call for a post-Morsi roadmap and that they stand by the call of the opposition and the masses for Morsi to step aside. According to sources, that roadmap includes a presidential council that will include one of their leaders. But not all Salafis, and they are diverse and many, are of the same mind. The Salafist Front, which includes a breakaway faction of the Nour Party, shares an opinion held by many in the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. “Minister of Defence Al-Sisi's recent statement reveals that his ambitions are boundless. He overthrew Tantawi and Anan and now he wants to overthrow Morsi. But there is a difference between one overthrow and another,” said a source from this front. Until August 2012, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Sami Anan had headed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that had governed Egypt in the post-revolutionary transitional phase. The Salafist Front vehemently objected to what it described as overt and unacceptable displays of the army's partiality, such as dropping flags by helicopter on the demonstrators in Tahrir. The front maintains that there is a “flagrant violation of legitimacy, assault against the constitution and an assassination of the popular will which had elected a president,” and it has called on Islamists to rally to the defence of the legitimacy of the elected president. In so saying, the Salafist Front sides with Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya and the National Coalition for the Defence of Legitimacy, which consists of 13 Islamist parties. These groups, which have amassed around the Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Madinet Nasr, proclaimed their “rejection and total condemnation of the attempt to overthrow legitimacy and the popular will.” The statement goes on to “salute the people of Egypt who have assembled in the squares of Egypt in defence of legitimacy and the glorious January Revolution” and to “affirm respect for the popular will and elected legitimacy.” It further vows to “preserve the unity of the nation and national reconciliation which realises the higher interests of the nation.” Safwat Abdel-Ghani Shura Council member told the Weekly that the coalition affirms its commitment to the principle of peacefulness. “The shedding of Egyptian blood is a red line,” he said. He called on the people to rally in the squares “in defence of the legitimacy of the people, the legitimacy of their constitutional will, and their rejection of any coup against this legitimacy.” Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya leader, Abdel-Ghani, said that the coalition is open to all initiatives for resolving the crisis, as long as they uphold legitimacy and constitutional principles. He condemned the recourse on the part of some of the opposition to violence and destruction “with the aim of intimidating the people against performing their role in the protection of the revolution.” On the other side of the Nile, addressing supporters in front of Cairo University, Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, former Muslim Brotherhood member, denounced Al-Sisi's recent statements as a “flagrant attack [on legitimacy], the prelude to a coup and a complete abortion of all that has been accomplished for this people over the past two years.” Abu Ismail, who had been disqualified as a presidential candidate last year, also issued a statement on his Facebook page, describing Al-Sisi's statements as “proof against him and corroboration of what I have previously said about him, his position and US statements on this matter.” The statement continued, “It is very clear that when people did not respond to his previous statement he escalated his language to a more audacious and offensive level. Therefore, something must be found to deter him from this terrible and unprecedented transgression in Egyptian history. This is the issue of the moment, beyond a doubt, before the situation exceeds its bounds. Without the slightest doubt, the distribution of roles through the statements issued by the army, by the police, and by the opposition is a form of collective clapping. This amazing harmony between them requires more than what has ever been required before.” As the situation stands, at the moment, all scenarios are possible. No one can predict what will happen if Islamists throng to the streets, especially following the recent announcement by Al-Qaeda that it could intervene at any time to safeguard the Islamic government in Egypt. Yet, while supporters of Morsi have gathered in the squares or remain at home in anticipation of instructions, it is just as clear that the Islamists are divided, with one camp clamouring for “legitimacy” and the other, consisting of Salafis, calling on Morsi to step down and poising itself to take part in a presidential council so that Islamists can retain a presence in the political arena. It is interesting how many of these had once condemned democracy as heresy and even condemned disobedience of the ruler. But then, such is the nature of politics: political manoeuvring and compromise.
