A day after millions of Egyptians gathered to protest President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist party's headquarters were ransacked and set on fire, killing as many as six people.
Not far from the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo, Morsi received the resignations of four of his cabinet ministers, all reportedly doing so in solidarity with the protest movement that flooded Tahrir Square on Sunday, the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration.
The Tamarod, or rebellion, Movement, an alliance between Egypt's left, liberal and secular parties, has harnessed increased anger at Morsi and his party, whose roots in political Islam are regarded as suspicious by many Egyptians, and whose management of the economy is seen as a failure by even more. Protestors are calling for Morsi to resign, and for early presidential elections (parliamentary elections are likely to happen later this year regardless):
“Enough is enough,” said Alaa al-Aswany, a prominent Egyptian writer who was among the many at the protests who had supported the president just a year ago. “It has been decided for Mr. Morsi. Now, we are waiting for him to understand.”
Early Monday morning, dozens of looters and attackers tossed Molotov cocktails at the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo, smashing windows and dodging birdshot fired from inside. Police, openly feuding with Morsi, refused to help; the building was eventually set on fire, and six were reportedly killed. At least nine have died since the protests began on Sunday, and activists reported "dozens" of sexual assaults in Tahrir Square.
Morsi, whose margin in last year's election was helped by the well-organized Brotherhood's long status as an oppositional organization under former president Hosni Mubarak, has continued to call for a "national dialogue":
"If we are saying that we have a majority, and the opposition are saying that they have a majority, how can they decide?" asked Nader Omran, a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"What is the other solution for this dilemma, except the ballot box?"