June 30th Part 3: Day of Reckoning

Maybe the title is a bit melodramatic, we'll see!  Although there are only a few reports of minor violence so far, our security services have told us that there are over 100,000 people in each of two major protest locations and many, many more marching in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria.  Even our quiet neighborhood of Maadi has had protestors, although they were mainly families with small children.  Below is a picture taken from one of our balconies:

Everyone in this group seemed very calm and under control.  There was one policeman trying to keep people from getting too close to our wall.  He had no problems with anyone and the few people who noticed us watching just smiled and waved.  If I hadn't known any better I would have thought it was just a happy, patriotic parade.

We don't know what will happen tonight, but we will keep everyone updated as we get new information.

Evening of the 30th:  Overnight the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo was ransacked and burned.  There are reports of between four and eight people killed in various locations around Egypt.  While any death is something to be regretted, given the millions of people out on the streets it could have been much, much worse.  The ant-Morsi protesters are camping out in Tahrir Square and  at the presidential palace.  They have said that Morsi has until 5:00pm on Tuesday to leave office before they start causing 'severe civil disobedience'.