CAIRO: Scores of Egyptians from the March 19 movement and others protested in support of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) calling themselves the “silent majority” at Cairo's Roxy Square in the neighborhood of Heliopolis on Friday. The group was calling on protesters in central Cairo's Tahrir Square to leave and accept the changes the SCAF and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf announced last week. The protesters are demanding that the Tahrir protesters respect the results of the March 19 referendum and accused activists in downtown Cairo of “stalling the country's progress.” The Roxy protesters held signs that read “No for the Tahrir ministry” and “we are all January 25 and we have the right to our opinions.” Other signs called on the SCAF to take responsibility for the country and to protect it from what they called “attempts of vandalism.” As of Friday evening, the counter demonstration was still in action, with some claiming they would stage a sit-in until their demands were met, echoing the calls from Tahrir, albeit in opposition. Eyewitness reported that some of the protesters were carrying guns. One of the members of the March 19 movement said in a phone call from the protest to Egypt's National TV that they refuse the attempts to cut roads or close vital governmental institutions, in reference to activists in Tahrir closing down the country's largest administrative building, or Mogamma, for a few days during the past week and preventing its staff from entering their offices. Activists in the square then intervened to solve the issue and the building was back receiving citizens on Wednesday. Many Tahrir protesters later denounced the attempts to close the administrative building and said that they would stand against any other attempts. A handwritten sign is now hanging over the building's entrance that reads “open by the orders of the revolutionaries.” Many activists in Tahrir and on Twitter have met the Roxy protests with a stream of jokes that attempt to undermine the counter protest crowd and invited them to join the “real change” in Tahrir. BM
