Brotherhood plan to continue their Cairo sit-ins despite cabinet's instructions to police to disperse them.
The Muslim Brotherhood described a decision by the Egyptian cabinet to order security forces to disperse a pro-Morsi sit-in as “terrorism.”
“Morsi loyalists will continue their sit-in, and no threats will frighten them,” Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref said in an interview with CNN's Arabic website.
“The military coup is the terrorism,” he added.
In a statement on Wednesday, the cabinet stated that the pro-Morsi rallies are “no longer acceptable,” and asked the interior ministry to take "all legal measures" to disperse the sit-ins and “confront acts of terrorism and road blocking.”
Aref told CNN that the sit-ins in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square and Nahda Square have hosted human rights organizations and foreign photographers and journalists who saw for themselves what Aref described as the double standards of official state media in portraying pro-Morsi sit-ins.
“[The media] attack the pro-Morsi sit-ins, with no talk of what happens in the [anti-Morsi sit-ins] in Tahrir Square and at the presidential palace,” Aref said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the cabinet asked the interior ministry to take "all legal measures" to disperse the sit-ins, and asserted that their decision was made based on the people’s mandate to crackdown on "violence and terrorism."
Army chief and defense minister Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called on the Egyptian people to take to the streets last Friday to mandate the army and the police to crackdown on "violence and terrorism." Millions demonstrated, including many political parties and entities such as the anti-Morsi ‘Rebel’ campaign.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]