CAIRO: By mid-morning local time, thousands of Egyptians had arrived at Cairo' Tahrir Square, preparing for what many expect to be the largest gathering in the post-Hosni Mubarak era. Predominantly Islamist, families were seen arriving to the center of the Egyptian capital. “We are coming here because the military rule is not the future of Egypt and I want to show my children that it can be different and better,” Mahmoud Abdelrahman, a bearded man from the outskirts of Cairo, told Bikyamasr.com, his two young children with Qur'an in hand. “Islam is the future of Egypt and we want to have a democratic Islamic state.” The convergence of the Islamist groups of Egypt on the square made famous by the activists who stood their ground against the violence of the police during the 18 days of protest that ousted the former regime in February, has left many liberals frustrated that the conservatives are attempting to take over the revolution. “There is definitely a worry that the Islamists, with their buses and gifts for people to come today, will be able to gain an election victory and destroy what we, young people and men and women, have been able to create,” Kamal Yussif, a 22-year-old university student, told Bikyamasr.com as people continued to stream into the square. Friday's rally is in opposition to the military council's draft of a basic constitution they argue must be left to an elected legislative body. The Muslim Brotherhood, who has largely been on the sidelines of protests in the country, including the 18 days of demonstrations that ousted the former government, said on its website that it would rally against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Friday after the interim government, with SCAF approval, went ahead with the constitutional principles it and other groups in the country deem irresponsible. The constitutional principles would bind a panel appointed by the elected parliament – elections for that parliament begin on November 28 – to maintain the military's oversight of lawmaking in the country. The military also wants to ensure that no elected government can determine its budget, in a move largely seen by political forces in the country as a move to enhance and cement the military rulers' power. Amr Derrag, the Giza governorate chief of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) told Bikyamasr.com that the party wants to speak on behalf of the people, but he was weary of the military's far-reaching hand. “We must support the people and what they want and deliver to them the justice that democracy and the process can give, which is a free and elected body making decisions,” he said. The opposition to the draft constitutional principles has been one of the few issues that has brought the left and right together in Egypt. All political parties ahead of the vote have demanded that parliament be given oversight and final decision on military matters, including the budget. The government revised the draft, but the Islamists, who organised a mass protest in July, have rejected the very idea of a document that would limit parliament's authority to draft the constitution. “The cabinet is clinging on to undemocratic articles, so we have no choice but to stage a million person march to defend democracy on Friday,” the Brotherhood said. Despite the overt Islamist nature of the demonstration, Yussif and other liberals say they will also participate in the mass movement, “because it is the right thing to do ahead of the election.” He argued that despite the fears that have arisen in the face of the Islamist push toward voting on November 28, “it is important that we attempt to maintain some unity in the country against the injustices of the military.” Over one million people are expected in Cairo on Friday, in what organizers argue shows the full force of the opposition to the military's coercion of the constitution. BM
