As Egypt approaches a weekend of confrontation, the divide between those who love and those who despise President Mohammed Morsi and his pro-Islamist government is wider than ever. NBC's Charlene Gubash reports.
By Charlene Gubash and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
CAIRO --?Egypt is bracing for mass nationwide protests this weekend amid deepening divisions that have set neighbor against neighbor and raised fears of unrest.
Organizers of ?June 30? demonstrations -- which mark one year since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's election -- claim they have the backing of an estimated 15 million Egyptians who want him to resign.
?Only God knows what will happen [on Sunday],? said Gamal Abdul Aziz, a pro-Morsi car mechanic in Madba?a, a blue-collar district in Cairo.
Building on discontent about a range of social and economic issues, Morsi?s opponents hope to force early presidential elections.?His supporters, meanwhile, have promised they will also take to the streets to defend the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government on Friday ahead of opposition protest.
In an example of just how polarized the debate over Egypt?s future has become, Aziz and his family became embroiled in a shouting match with a nearby resident, anti-Morsi computer science student Mohamed Abdul Munim, 23, while being interviewed this week.
The argument, which took place after NBC News filmed a political discussion between the two, ended when Munim stormed off.
NBC News
Gamal Abdul Aziz, left, a pro-Morsi car mechanic, argues with anti-Morsi computer science student Mohamed Abdul Munim, right, while being interviewed this week.
The dispute and recent violence -- one man was shot dead and four wounded in an attack on a Muslim Brotherhood office on Thursday --?was an ill omen for Sunday?s marches that will be held a year to the day after Morsi became?Egypt's first freely elected leader.?The country's powerful army, which helped protesters topple Hosni Mubarak's?authoritarian regime in 2011, has?reinforced its presence in cities like Cairo and Port Said.
Egypt's leading religious authority warned Friday that the country could "slide into civil war."
Munim said he believed ?most? of Egypt?s registered 50 million voters will be out on the streets, supporting one side or the other.
?We are sure that we will go out and get beaten up by the [Muslim] Brotherhood [but] we are going out despite this," he said. ?There is no security, there is economic collapse, the electricity cuts off and everybody is suffering. They will say Morsi is not at fault, but electricity didn?t cut off when the military governed.?
Aziz, meanwhile, said his life had improved under Morsi, and accused the mostly-secular opposition of ?waging a war against Islam.?
?Can you build a house in a day? No, it takes time. What can a president do in one year when a country is in ruins? The old [Mubarak] regime stole the country and left it destroyed.?
Amr Nabil / AP
Egyptian drivers wait outside in long lines at a gasoline station in Cairo on Tuesday.
In a sign of the nervousness many felt, Egyptians were stocking up on food, fuel, water and cash in the days leading up the protests.
Morsi?s supporters claim the demonstration? organized by an opposition umbrella group named "Tamarod," meaning "Rebel"?? is setting the stage for a repeat of the 2011 Arab Spring revolution.
Mahmoud Badr, a 28-year-old journalist and founder of the Tamarod movement, dismissed televised speech by Morsi on Wednesday night in which the president appealed for calm.
"Our demand was early presidential elections and since that was not addressed anywhere in the speech then our response will be on the streets on [Sunday]," he told the English-language Egypt Independent news site.?
The U.S.?Embassy announced Tuesday it would be closing its doors for the day of the demonstrations, but added that ?potentially violent protest activity may occur before June 30,? and urged U.S. citizens to ?maintain a low profile? from Friday onwards.
Underscoring fears of violence, defenders of Morsi on Tuesday revealed plans to form vigilante groups to protect public buildings from opposition demonstrations, the Egypt Independent reported, quoting Safwat Abdel Ghany, a member of Islamic umbrella organization Jama'a al-Islamiya.?
The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his satire to Cairo Friday, appearing on a show hosted by the man known as "Egypt's Jon Stewart" and who has faced investigation for insulting the country's president and Islam. "If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke then you don't have a regime," said Stewart. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe reports.
?If chaos sweeps across the country, Islamist groups will secure state institutions and vital facilities against robbery by thugs and advocates of violence," he was quoted as saying.
Members of Tamarod were so confident that they?would force Morsi from power that the organization set out a constitutional ?road map? that it said would take Egypt forward without a president until new elections.
Eric Trager, fellow at the Washington Institute think tank, said this week that battle lines were drawn between ?an enraged opposition? and ?an utterly incapable, confrontational ruling party that now counts some of Egypt's most violent political elements as its core supporters.?
?Rising food prices, hours-long fuel lines, and multiple-times-daily electricity cuts -- all worsening amidst a typically scorching Egyptian summer -- have set many Egyptians on edge, with clashes between Brotherhood and anti-Brotherhood activists now a common feature of Egyptian political life," he said.
?Whatever happens on [Sunday], it can't end well,? he added.
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This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:30 AM EDT
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