CAIRO: The 6 of April youth political movement called on young people from all political factions in Egypt to join together this Friday in what they dubbed the “Friday of unity,” the group announced on their official Facebook page. Friday is also scheduled to see large numbers of Islamists converge of Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital for their own mobilization. The announcement comes as the group was recently put under fire from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt's ruling authority at the moment. The SCAF mentioned the group by name in one of its recent statements, accusing the group of having a foreign agenda and a “suspicious plan” to harm the country, calling on Egyptians to “stand strong against attempts of vandalizing.” Many army generals appeared on TV shows, escalating the attacks on the group, saying that they received “training” from aboard, notably Serbia, and the youth movement was trained in how to use weapons against the armed forces. The group, and many other political movements, condemned the SCAF for “defaming” the group with no evidence and accused it of “trying to distract the public from the demands of the revolution.” Generals of the army have attacked the general coordinator of the group, Ahmed Maher, and released a picture of him holding a gun in Gaza, saying that he, and other members, received armed training in Serbia on how to bring down the regime. The group denied the army's claims and explained the photo, saying the picture was taken during a visit to Gaza and that the gun belonged to “the mother of a martyr who is considered a symbol of the Palestine struggle” in the strip. The words of the SCAF have sunk into the collective Egyptian mind as one blogger and human rights activist was abducted from a march on Saturday after residents in the Abbassiya neighborhood of Cairo thought he was part of the 6 of April movement and called him a spy. The activist Amr Gharbeia was a victim of a citizen's arrest by a man named Hassan Ghandouri, who said on ON TV that he “arrested” Gharbeia because he thought he was a member of the group and wanted to do his “duty and give him to the authorities.” Gharbeia was released the next morning and plans to take legal action against his abductor, Ghandouri. The group's call for unity comes after different Islamic groups announced they would march on Tahrir and other major squares on Friday under the banner “Friday of Identity,” refereeing to “the Islamic identity of Egypt,” they have said. The Muslim Brotherhood group and the al-Nour Salafist party are among the leading Islamic forces mobilizing for the march. Islamist groups, despite the planned march, tend to agree with Tahrir protesters in many demands being made, including the releasing of “the hands of the current government to work without any involvements from the SCAF,” “the cleansing of the the state from the old regime affiliates, the delayed rights of the Martyrs families, the imposing of a minimum and maximum wage and a clear plan and schedule for the upcoming elections, along with the speedy trials of the police officers accused of opening fire at protesters during the 18 days of the popular uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.” Some 1,000 Egyptians were killed and thousands more injured when police and hired thugs clashed with protesters during the revolution. BM
