Brotherhood calls for 'day of anger' to commemorate Rabaa massacre

The Muslim Brotherhood has called on its supporters to make Friday 14 August “a day of anger” to mark the second anniversary of the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiyya and Al-Nahda Square protests in support of the legitimate, but ousted, President Mohamed Morsi. The day should also be “a revolutionary uprising against the murderers and a day to commemorate the righteous martyrs” who were killed by Egyptian security forces. Although estimates of those killed vary, it is believed that at least 1,000 unarmed protesters were shot and burnt to death as the army and police broke up the protests in central Cairo.

“The second anniversary of the Rabaa and Al-Nahda massacres comes at a time when our beloved nation and state is suffering difficult conditions,” a statement on the movement’s Facebook page said. “The country is still kidnapped, the pure blood of our people is still being shed, tens of thousands of the country’s honourable people are forcibly disappeared in the prisons of the criminal military coup, and the same number of people have been expelled and displaced both inside and outside of the country.”

According to the Brotherhood, the massacres on 14 August 2013 were a defining point in Egyptian and world history. “The crime that was committed with international and regional collusion, along with some Egyptians who betrayed their country and its people, is a crime that does not have a statute of limitations and the identity of those who committed it is known. The day will come when they will be held accountable for their crimes.”

The Islamic movement noted that hundreds of thousands of Egyptians defended democracy in the face of the military coup by staging sit-ins in Rabaa and Al-Nahda Squares. “This was a bright light in Egypt’s history. The international and internal attempts to contact those in the sit-ins and the entities representing them in the squares have been dealt with seriously in the context of our national, democratic and revolutionary principles.” However, it added, many of these attempts were part of a “deceptive” plan against the revolutionaries that aimed to facilitate the massacre.

Pointing out that over the past two years the revolutionary movement has experienced highs and lows in light of the “brutality” of Egypt’s security forces, the statement highlighted assassinations in homes and streets and murder in prisons. “All of this affected the revolutionary work and everyone, including us, must commit to their obligations and responsibilities of confronting the military coup state,” insisted the Brotherhood, which is now classified as a “terrorist organisation” by the Egyptian government.