‘The holy blood is on the Brotherhood’s hands’

Bloody clashes between Egypt’s Republican Guard and pro-Morsi protesters in Cairo early Monday morning, just before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, continue to dominate Arab newspaper headlines on Tuesday.

“A bloody day in Egypt, and Washington condemns ‘Brotherhood’ calls for violence,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, featuring an image of pro-Morsi protesters raising their arms across from military barricades, armored personnel carriers and barbed wire.

The army opened fire at protesters attempting to approach the Republican Guard building where deposed Morsi is believed to be held, killing at least 51 people in a “massacre” (quotation marks in the original), the daily reports. Now Morsi supporters are vowing an “Islamic Intifada.”

The daily also cites the army’s version of the events, claiming that an “armed terrorist group” tried to attack the building, “jeopardizing Egypt’s national security.”

In a separate article, the daily quotes an Israeli security official as claiming that Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula are in immediate danger of kidnapping by armed Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Al-Qaeda groups. The groups wish to cause anarchy in Sinai and thus take revenge against the army for killing dozens of Islamist protesters, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports.

Egypt’s staunchly anti-Morsi independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm leaves no room for doubt as to which version it believes.

“The holy blood is on the Brotherhood’s hands,” reads its main headline.

The daily dubs the carnage “a painful occurrence” claiming (in its news article, not its editorial page) that the Muslim Brotherhood demonstration was “a clear attempt to mobilize the West against Egypt to bring back the president — deposed by popular will — to his position.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm dedicates its first four paragraphs to comments by the military and the emergency services, giving a voice to the Muslim Brotherhood only in the article’s fifth paragraph.

A bit more cautious in its assertions, London-based daily Al-Hayat claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has attempted to utilize the killing to demand international intervention in Egypt. The Brotherhood began circulating rumors regarding defections within the Egyptian army, using a video of a soldier speaking of “the Free Egyptian Army,” a reference to the Syrian rebel group the Free Syrian Army. The military, for its part, denied the reports, arresting the renegade soldier.

“Egypt: The Brotherhood declare all-out war and the army warns that its patience is running out,” reads the headline of London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, featuring a photo of what seem to be Morsi supporters displaying their blood-covered palms to the camera following the shooting.

Using the term “massacre,” the daily’s editor-in-chief Abdel Bari Atwan remains unconvinced by the army’s arguments, accusing it of not being “more restrained and cautious with the blood of the Egyptian people.”

“Saying that a terrorist organization was embedded among the demonstrators is unlikely to convince many. Dangerous or armed as this group may have been, killing 50 people and injuring hundreds — a large number of them severely — proves that there was an intent to kill and use excessive force,” writes Atwan.

Under the banner of “the martyr’s million-man protest,” the Muslim Brotherhood has called on its supporters to gather Tuesday in opposition to the military’s takeover, reports Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera on its website.

The site displays a photo of a cleric from Egypt’s top religious institution, Al-Azhar, displaying two handfuls of bullet cartridges supposedly fired at the demonstrators.

“Is America Egypt’s illness?” asks Al-Hayat columnist Hazem Saghiyeh, pointing to the interesting fact that both the Muslim Brotherhood and its opponents are vilifying the United States as the guilty party in Egypt’s troubles.

“And thus it appears that amid a social rift which is almost complete, accusing America is the only thing that both rival sides agree on,” writes Saghiyeh.