According to the secularists, the Islamists agreed to join with them in a protest on a narrow list of shared grievances, and then they broke their word by turning the event into an Islamist rally.
Some Islamists claimed that there was no such agreement, however a list of the grievances appeared in the media and was reproduced on this blog the night before the event.
So the Day of Unity turned out to be anything but. As I have speculated before in this space, capital, for whom the SCAF toils, will never surrender Egypt to its people, so how will they prevent a democratic takeover of power? There have been persistent whispers that the Islamists are working with the SCAF. According to Hossam el-Hamalawy:
The Islamist forces, whose leaders, also without any exceptions, are in one way or another allied to the SCAF awaiting their shares of the booties in the coming parliamentary elections and constitutional reform, decided to escalate their moves against the Tahrir revolutionaries by announcing roughly two weeks ago they were calling for mass protests in the square, to “assert Egypt’s Islamic identity, denounce supra-constitutional principles, and to demand the application of Islamic sharia.” Such announcement was coupled with an agitation campaign that spoke of “purging Tahrir from the secularists.”
There was tension in the square over the past few days. We didn’t know what to expect on Friday. Some were expecting an “Islamist invasion” of the square, medieval style, with swords and sticks. Others thought it was going to be a peaceful day.[1]
The invasion did come, but fortunately without the swordplay.
Thinking aloud: There is reason to think that the two reactionary forces, the SCAF (political) and the Islamists (social/cultural), are colluding. Historically, some Islamists have been quite amenable to sharing a duopoly with government. While the analogy only goes so far, the relationship between the clergy and political rule was not so different as that as existed in the Christian West in the middle ages. The SCAF works for capital and their concern is continued profits, the profiteers won't care if women are denied drivers' licenses and forced to cover themselves. Should the Islamists not balk at capitalism, a deal can easily be struck.
And it's worth noting that up until this event, protesters have been demonized, harried, beaten, tortured, and blocked off and kettled by the police and army. In Abbasiya recently, they were directly assaulted by thugs while the police did nothing but lob tear gas at the protesters. The Islamists went unmolested.
This may just be a strategy on the part of the regime, there doesn't need to be a deal in place. Perhaps the cops are giving the Islamists a free hand so that they can later swoop in and shut the revolution down in the name of fighting extremism, the War on Terror etc.
There was also this:
Egypt army detains 5 suspects in Sinai clashes
On Friday night, around 150 men in trucks and on motorbikes rampaged through El-Arish, firing assault rifles in the air, driving terrified residents into their homes.
They rode through the deserted streets of the north Sinai city waving black flags which read "There is no God but Allah", before attempting to storm the police station.
Sinai, that's near Israel, isn't it?
And in case we didn't put two and two together:
Earlier, the masked men used a bulldozer to damage a statue of the late president Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamist militants in 1981.
http://www.timesofoman.com/innercat.asp?cat=&detail=48291&sec=news
And there is this anachronism:
Egyptian plane catches fire at Cairo airport
The passengers were rushed off the plane to a transit hall as firefighters put out the flames. The officials said two firefighters were later taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire didn't affect general air traffic and another plane was being prepared for the passengers traveling to Jiddah.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Not authorized to speak to the media? Not authorized to say firefighters put out a fire; that some suffered smoke inhalation; that another plane was readied?
Yes this fire could have been a coincidence, but how rare it is that planes catch afire, and at the airport no less. It sure didn't take long for this plane to burst into flames did it?
I don't know what this means if anything, but I have a feeling we will be hearing more about it in the months ahead.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hn1CxP92oSOy4RJWOo2zLea3VmnQ?docId=9b885130dd104e02b06a4aa2c3e16965
I'm not suggesting that the Sinai, airport, and natural gas explosion events were staged, I don't know that to be the case, but they all work to the favor of the SCAF. The moment of truth is coming, the moment when the junta moves on the revolution in the name of establishing order. And that moment may not be too far off.
[1] Hossam's blog has a great account, lots of photos too. http://www.arabawy.org/blog/
