Four Fingers Up

EGYPT, Cairo : Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi clash with security forces, in Cairo, on August 30, 2013. TOPSHOTS/AFP PHOTO/MOHAMED EL-SHAHED

There's a new symbol. Yellow-painted hands with four fingers extended in an upward position. That symbol even found its way to Parliament Hill a few days back, in Ottawa, Canada, when Brotherhood-supporting Egyptian-Canadians rallied, holding posters of deposed Mohammad Morsi, demanding his return to government and the reinstatement of the Muslim Brotherhood. Among the hundred or so protesters assembled there were upraised hands, four fingers high.

Ottawa's Egyptian community rallied on Parliament Hill on Saturday. The group was protesting the violence against pro-democracy supporters in Egypt following the July 3 military coup. (Chris Hofley/Ottawa Sun)

Post-Friday prayers as the faithful followers of the Brotherhood streamed out onto the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities found similar scenes where yellow posters appeared everywhere. They are printed surreptitiously in small shops specializing in the production of Islamic documents, and the Koran. Little Islamic bookshops no one might suspect, and then the posters were distributed quietly by dedicated youth.

Tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters rallied. Government agents weren't certain where they would gather; this time around, messages of times and places were silently conveyed. In one area where Egyptian intelligence were prepared, erecting barbed wire, furnishing the area with police and security and the presence of army tanks, it became clear they had been tricked, and no protesters appeared there.

Small, discreet groups of as few as three meet in private nightly to debate the form of the protest to be taken, relating to the security situation as it pertains day by day. When they disperse they go to various mosques to relay the decision made to others, through coded telephone calls and text messages, effectively bypassing Egyptian intelligence.

Top Brotherhood leaders, though imprisoned are finding ways to communicate. A rumour was being circulated that the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie has died in prison. The Interior Ministry affirmed in a Saturday statement that he had suffered a heart attack in Tora prison, held there awaiting trial. That he died was firmly denied. His condition is said to be stable, with a team of doctors examining him.

Egyptian security officials have turned for assistance to police officers now retired, whose background in tracking Islamist groups would be invaluable now, in attempting to monitor the Brotherhood activities. With their help former lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagy, a senior Brotherhood operator had been monitored for several days, evading capture, before he was finally arrested on Thursday.

The protests, not as large in their turnout as previously, although managing to assemble roughly ten thousand in Cairo, were largely peaceful, though some sporadic violence did occur. Security forces fired tear gas at some marches. Angry residents confronted Brotherhood supporters again as they have done previously, threatening violence at the disruptions they were mounting. Six people were confirmed to have been killed nationwide. A policeman was also killed.

Protesters succeeded in what they had set out to do, marching through the streets chanting slogans condemning army chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi. "The people want the death of the assassin!", Waving the Egyptian flag and holding aloft yellow posters with the outline of a four-finger-up hand, they chanted their defiance. Egyptians, much like their counterparts elsewhere in the Arab Middle East, are big on demanding death.

Their new symbol is seen everywhere now; online, in street campaigns, to recall the sit-in protest around the Rabaaah al-Adawiya mosque, which translates to Fourth, in Arabic. "When it started, it was only about the return of Morsi to power. Now it has gone past that. Blood has been shed.", explained Ahmed Osama. Again, a not-unusual event in the geography.