Pro-Morsi alliance plans show of force Friday

[DJKeefy]

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, an Islamist umbrella group supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi, called for nationwide mass protests for after Friday prayers that on this occasion mark the second day of Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which closes the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Dubbing the day the "Eid of Victory" the alliance has called on Morsi loyalists to march from several mosques across Cairo and in Egypt’s other governorates. The main banner under which the protesters will march is "the people want to topple the coup," the alliance said in a statement released Thursday.

The alliance's call comes one day after Prime Minister Hazem Beblawy declared that his government is all but ready to disperse pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo after attempts by foreign dignitaries to mediate a resolution to the 6-week-old standoff between the government and a defiant Brotherhood failed.

The demonstrations are set to kick off from Nour El-Mohamadeya Mosque in Matareya; Al-Aziz Bellah Mosque in Zaitoun; Amr Ibn El-Aas Mosque in Masr Al-Qadeema; the Nour Mosque in Abbasiya; the Fath Mosque in Ramses; the Assad Ibn El-Fourat Mosque in Dokki; Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandiseen (all in Cairo); the Istikama Mosque in Giza and El-Hasry Mosque in 6 of October.

Morsi supporters — namely the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies — have been staging two sit-ins at Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares, as well as daily rallies demanding Morsi's reinstatement since his popularly-backed army ouster on 3 July.

On Thursday, pro-Morsi supporters in Cairo and Giza also staged Eid Al-Fitr celebrations.

At Giza's Al-Nahda Square, thousands of protesters gathered to attend the prayers led by Sheikh Mohamed Abdel-Maksoud who stirred controversy in June after he called Muslim Shias "unclean" at a pro-Syria conference held by deposed president Morsi.

In Cairo's Nasr City, at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in, the wife of deposed president Morsi called or his release from detention in an undisclosed location.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/78657.aspx