CAIRO -- Egyptians are in the streets here again today, demandingfaster reforms from a military junta that has ruled since the Feb.11 ouster of Hosni Mubarak as president.
Protesters called for a "million-man march" on the capital'sTahrir Square, the center of 18 days of demonstrations that endedMubarak's 30-year rule.
Today's rally underscores the divide between old and newpolitical elements jockeying for power.
Some favor "a day of rage" or a "second revolution," pledging toremain in Tahrir until their demands are met. Islamist groups haveurged their followers to stay home, much as they did in the earlydays of the uprising against Mubarak.
Many other Egyptians express concern about the slow pace towarddemocracy or a growing Islamist influence.
Ramy Shaath, who leads the left-liberal Free Egypt movement,insists Egyptians are united on "a quick removal of the army controlover the nation." He says the army "is doing nothing" to erase theold political structure.
"There have been no trials for all the security and police whohave tortured and killed throughout the years," says Shaath, 40."The deputy interior minister is still in office."
Some groups want to replace the 19-man military junta with acouncil of four civilians and one general until elections are held.Supporters of former United Nations nuclear watchdog chief MohamedElBaradei want a constitution to be written before parliamentaryelections in September.
Shaath's Free Egypt movement favors the immediate election of apresident and a council to draft a constitution.
Concerns over chaos
Ahmed Masri, 45, an accountant bursting with energy, is a leaderof the Revolutionaries of Tahrir movement. He wants quick, publictrials for Mubarak and his followers, as well as civilian trials foractivists arrested by the military. Yet Masri insists that the armyis the revolution's guarantor.
"I adamantly refuse to try to bring down SCAF," he says,referring to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. "Alongwith the current security chaos, that would also bring politicalchaos."
The military has urged Egyptians to refrain from protests andinstead begin the hard work of political organizing. It also seemsto be listening to protesters, offering concessions in a series ofofficial communiques.
Officials have said Mubarak and his imprisoned sons, Gamal andAla'a, will be tried in civilian court and announced the opening ofthe Rafah border with Palestinian-ruled Gaza.
Both decisions are popular here. Many observers suspect themilitary took those steps to calm public tensions.
Hanan Abdel Sittar, 35, another Revolutionaries of Tahrir leader,worries that "infiltrators" might disrupt today's rally.
"A lot of people hate for Egypt to become a democratic state,"Sittar says. "The danger inside the country is the counterrevolutionmade up of former regime elements and their thugs."
Masri accuses the ousted regime's followers and its now-dissolved National Democratic Party of fomenting "sectarian violenceand ... economic problems to create chaos."
No 'bartering over rights'
Indeed, many Egyptians worry about where their revolution isheaded.
"We are now in this period ... of collapse," says Shawi Said, 38,an accountant from Mahalla, a Nile delta city that has witnessednumerous labor strikes.
The country, he says, is struggling to achieve political,leadership and economic reforms all at once.
Said fears Egyptians' inexperience with democracy "is what leadsto sectarian violence. ... In the midst of this, the Islamic groupswant to take control of the revolution because they are organizedand have foreign support.
"We have no support and have to deal with a (local) governor(who) is still from the former ruling party."
Political activist and Internet blogger Mahmoud Salem, who writesunder the name Sandmonkey, is pushing for an Egyptian bill ofrights.
"I don't want to create a second revolution," Salem declares. "Idon't want to have someone bartering with me over my rights."
If basic rights are constitutionally guaranteed, he says, "itdoesn't matter what kind of laws they pass after that, people willbe protected."
Opposed by Islamists
The Muslim Brotherhood, the powerful Islamic fundamentalistgroup, has refused to join today's protest, warning that a "secondrevolution may cause unnecessary sedition and strife ... unnecessaryclashes."
A skeptical Masri sees a different reason behind that decision:"The Muslim Brotherhood is getting their demands met, and they arealready making gains."
Salafis, an even more extreme Islamist group that has emergedsince Mubarak's ouster, decries today's rally as "being organized bysecularists, liberals, infidels and atheists, and we oppose them,"according to the Egyptian newspaper Masry Al Youm.
Yet many here feel that going into the streets is the only way tobe heard.
"The army has established a pattern -- 'We are not going to moveuntil you move.' And then they punish us when we move," says bloggerSalem.
Several activists in Cairo and other cities were arrested onThursday as they distributed protest posters and fliers; some werereleased by nightfall.
And late yesterday, the military issued its 58th communique,confirming "the right for peaceful demonstration." It said troopswill not be stationed near protesters in order to avoidconfrontations.
"The Egyptian armed forces never have and never will use violenceor shoot a single bullet toward the sons of this precious nation,"the message stated.
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