Cairo Protesters Demand New Egyptian Revolution

In the upscale Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, about a 20-minute walk from the presidential palace, the rally was in full swing. “We swear to the blood of the martyrs,” the marchers chanted as they moved toward the palace. “A new revolution from the start!” That, as much as anything, captured the mood of Sunday’s wave of national protests against President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization. After a year under Morsi, preceded by a generally unhappy 15 months of postrevolutionary military rule, the protesters — angry about a weak economy, deteriorating security and rising Islamism — want a reset. In terms of sheer numbers, Sunday’s anti-Morsi demonstrators had to be pleased with the turnout — in the hundreds of thousands. The figures equaled and possibly exceeded some of the highest peaks of the original revolution against deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak. Tahrir Square, on the edge of downtown Cairo, was packed to the point where crowds extended all the way across two bridges to the other bank of the Nile. And the crowds in Heliopolis were equally massive completely covering the district.