CAIRO (Reuters) ? Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied on Friday in a bid to show Islamists and liberal groups were united in wanting change, but the overwhelmingly Islamic tone of chants and banners exposed differences between the two sides.
"Islamic law above the constitution," several banners read in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Protesters who fear Islamists will seek to dominate plans to rewrite the constitution demanded they be taken down. Similar tensions emerged in Suez.
Many of those gathered were from the strict Salafist Islamic groups. Religious chants such as "There is no God but God" and "Islamiya, Islamiya" dominated Tahrir, which had filled up even before the start of Muslim prayers at noon.
"There are so many (Islamic) beards. We certainly feel imposed upon," said Samy Ali, 23, student in Tahrir, adding Salafists had tried to separate women and men camping there.
Islamists and more liberal groups have diverged on how hard to press the ruling generals for change. But the debate over the constitution, due to be re-written after parliament is elected this year, has also been divisive.
More liberal groups fear the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's best organised grouping, and other Islamists will dominate the vote and so be able to push for a more Islamic-leaning constitution.
"Troubling signs that the 'Friday of Unity' may soon turn into a 'Friday of Division'. Let's hope that's not the case," wrote Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center on Twitter.
The Brotherhood and other Islamists had joined a big rally with other groups on July 8 demanding a deeper purge of officials who served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak and swifter corruption trials. But since then they have stepped back.
The Brotherhood said they wanted to give the army time to respond. Other groups, such as the April 6 movement, have kept up the pressure with some camping out in Tahrir.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood official had said the Friday's rally would show "unity of all political forces."
In Tahrir, protesters said tensions mostly emerged between liberal groups and Salafists rather than the Brotherhood, which takes a conservative but not strict Salafi approach to Islam.
In Suez, east of Cairo, the official MENA news agency said some groups including the liberal Wafd party announced they were withdrawing from the rally because of Islamist tactics.
"(Wafd) and a large number of parties as well as the Suez Revolutionary Coalition decided not to participate after they became sure that the religious groups participating refused the principle of harmony and insisted on slogans that bring up divisions," Ali Amin of the Wafd party was quoted as saying.
'RED LINE'
However, alongside the Islamic slogans, there were also other chants in Tahrir, such as "People and army, hand in hand."
Some protesters have accused the Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak but now enjoys unprecedented freedom, of making a pact with the army. The group denies it. But the question of how hard to push the army over reforms remains.
"Our army will remain a red line, because it protected the great revolution ... No one can divide us and the army," preacher Mazhar Shaheen said in sermon in Tahrir, but said the army should provide a timetable for handing power to civilians.
While the army is expected to hand day-to-day government to civilians after elections, some protesters expect it keep a hand on power, partly because of its vast business interests. The army has also provided Egypt's rulers for six decades.
However, the Brotherhood made a statement of support for the April 6 movement, which in a rare move by the army, was singled out for trying to divide the people and the military. April 6 has been at the forefront of criticism of the military.
"The Brotherhood rejects discrediting and distorting any revolutionary force that chooses to rally peacefully," Mohamed Beltagy, a member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said.
One of the persistent protester demands has been for a swifter trial for Mubarak, now set for August 3. Protesters say the army wants to drag it out to protect its former commander-in-chief and the army from public humiliation.
Mubarak has been in hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since April. He has not been transferred to a prison like his two sons and other officials due to illness.
An official in the hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh said on Friday Mubarak's condition was "almost stable" but he continued to suffer from severe depression, the official news agency MENA reported. Earlier this week, hospital officials told MENA the former president was weak and refusing to eat solid food.
A source close to Mubarak said on Thursday his lawyer would tell the court in Cairo he was too sick to attend the start.
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110729/wl_nm/us_egypt_protests
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