Egypt’s MB launches charity projects ahead of uprising anniversary

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

The campaign called ‘Building Egypt Together’ is set to continue until Feb. 5. (Reuters)

 

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By Al Arabiya with AFP

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood announced on Tuesday a reformative campaign to provide social services to the public.

The announcement came three days before the country marks the uprising’s second anniversary and prepares for its parliamentary elections.

The campaign called ‘Building Egypt Together’ is set to continue until Feb. 5, reported Ahram Online.

The project incorporates a variety of initiatives, including “free health services to one million Egyptians, the renovation of 2,000 governmental schools and the alleviation of hardship by providing subsidized produce,” reported the website.

In a press conference held on Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s secretary-general, Mahmoud Hussein, said the initiative also aims to provide one million apartments to low-income citizens.

The campaign occurs as Egypt marks two years since the start of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak and brought in President Mohamed Mursi. The country is at a crossroads, marred by deep political divisions and fears of an economic crisis.

After the seismic political changes of 2011, the Arab world’s most populous nation is struggling to find its balance, between a leadership that boasts the legitimacy of the ballot and opponents who accuse the Islamists of betraying the goals of the revolution that brought them to power.

Opposition groups have called for mass street protests across the country on Friday against Mursi and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood on whose ticket he ran for president.

The National Salvation Front, the largest opposition bloc, has called for rallies “in all the Tahrir Squares of the country,” referring to the capital’s symbolic heart of the Egyptian revolt.

Sixteen other parties and movements have said they would take part in the protests against the president they call “Mursi Mubarak” for failing to reform post-revolution Egypt.

The slogan that brought Egypt to its feet in 2011 - “bread, freedom, social justice” - is applicable once again; many feel little has been achieved since 2011.

Authorities have vowed to keep security forces out of Tahrir Square to decrease the risk of confrontation, but they said police would stationed in surrounding areas to arrest troublemakers.

Tension in the country is also high ahead of a court verdict on Saturday in the trial of dozens of defendants over the country’s worst football disaster.

More than 70 people were killed in Port Said in February last year during clashes in the Suez Canal city between fans of home side Al-Masry and the Ultras of Cairo’s Al-Ahly.

Thousands of supporters of Al-Ahly club demonstrated in Cairo last week to demand severe punishments for those responsible for the stadium deaths and have vowed to launch a “new revolution” if justice is not served.

The spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmud Ghozlan, has said that his movement has yet to decide whether it hold any events on January 25 which has become a public holiday.