"Having chosen not to accommodate the constitutional demands of the secular
and Christian opponents, and having long ago been spurned by the Sufi-based
moderates, Mr. Morsi and the Brothers have turned to the more extreme Salafists
for support.
To secure their support, Mr. Morsi and his government have hinted at a
willingness to interpret the ambiguous new constitution in a very Islamic way.
Just this week, for example, the government banned the broadcasting of any
“romantic” songs or videos on its 23 state-owned television and radio outlets, a
move designed to salve a Salafist complaint against publicly funded
“obscenities.”
Hundreds of Salafists have laid siege for the past nine days to this media
complex located in 6th of October City, a satellite community outside the
capital, a few kilometres west of the pyramids and the Sphinx. Their goal is to
intimidate the men and women working in the broadcast outlets, people who, the
Salafists say, are corrupt and biased against Islam. “They do their job not to
please God, but just to become famous,” one speaker at the protest said
Friday.
Each day, in a threatening ritual, the crowd slaughters a farm animal – a
bull, a camel, a sheep – made up to represent one of the many on-air news
presenters who work at the site. The animal, its face covered with a mask of the
TV personality, is held on its side on concrete tiles heavily stained with
blood, while a butcher slits its throat. The crowd cheers, calling out the name
of the presenter – on Friday it was Wael Ibrashi of Dream TV – and shouting the
ritual “Allahu Akbar” (God is great)." (thanks Basim)
