President Muhammad Morsi responded to the ongoing violence by reinstating a state of emergency and curfew in Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez. Port Said protesters, who had organized a funeral march for the victims of yesterday’s violent protests, reportedly chanted “Morsi is God’s enemy” and “Down, down Morsi, down down the regime that killed and tortured us!” During the funerals themselves, seven were killed and hundreds injured in a further confrontation with security forces. Since nationwide protests linked to the anniversary of the 2011 revolution began, 49 people have been killed, and “Morsi’s opponents, who accuse his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood of betraying the revolution…have called for more demonstrations.”
With clashes ongoing in multiple cities and Tahrir Square once again filled with demonstrators, many are speaking out against Morsi’s inability to control the violence. The words of one anti-Morsi demonstrator capture the general sentiment among the opposition protesters: “The Muslim Brotherhood have deceived the people right from the start and now they have taken everything they wanted. They wanted to rule the country and have stolen the revolution. They’ve betrayed the youth who started the revolution.”
In an attempt to meet the demands of the anti-government protesters, Morsi called for a national dialogue to take place tomorrow, inviting representatives of Islamist allies and various opposition groups in addition to well-known political leaders like Hamdeen Sabahi and Amr Moussa.