As President Barack Obama cruised through upstate New York on his higher education bus tour, hundreds of Egyptians descended on the nation’s capitol protesting the President’s continued aide to the Muslim Brotherhood and the violence that continues to plague their country.
The crowd of Coptic Christians came from up and down the East Coast and as far west as Ohio to offer support for their brethren thousands of miles away. Starting at the White House, the crowd of more than 250 donned signs and chanted, protesting President Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood, and demanded the U.S. government show support for the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians facing devastation and despair as opposed to the government.
“For Obama being our President, as the United States of America, we stand for democracy,” Veronica Mina, 18, told Red Alert Politics. “We need support against terrorism. …I question my President and the Congress.”
Early this morning, more than 10 buses deployed from cities from Cleveland, Ohio, to Bayonne, N.J., filled with Americans of Egyptian descent — some who fled Egypt in their younger years and others who were born in the U.S., like Mina, but hold their Egyptian roots near to their hearts. Many argued the uprising against former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was far from a coup, but an attempt by the Egyptian people to free their country from the chains of terrorism.
“33 million people is not a coup,” one protester’s sign read.
“Wake up Obama, it is the Egyptian people’s will,” read another.
As the violence in Egypt continues, they’re calling on Obama to their help families and friends living in the country instead of funneling taxpayer dollars to the government, which is run by the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Obama is supporting terrorism and giving them money,” Habid Nasry, 17, said.
Nasry is not alone. According to a new Rasmussen poll, only 18 percent of Americans think the U.S. should continue providing aid — both military and financial — to Egypt.
Those at the protest though, like Mina, believe the U.S. should instead be providing military aid to the Egyptians to protect them like their own Army has done.
“How can Obama join against freedom?” Mina said. “It’s disappointing seeing the President do nothing.”
The United States does not officially recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, though many believe the party is linked to al-Qaeda. Earlier this month, a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website demanding the Muslim Brotherhood be declared as a terrorist organization surpassed 100,000 signatures, now requiring a response from the Obama administration.
One has not been issued yet.
As the Coptics’ protest continued in the afternoon heat, officers with the U.S. Parks Police worked to contain the growing group to a small staging area in front of the White House’s west gates. But after protesting President Obama for more than an hour, they took their message through downtown Washington, D.C. Metropolitan police blocked traffic as they made their way from Pennsylvania Avenue to the offices of the Washington Post, with plans to continue on to CNN — the company receives funding from state-run Al Jazeera, one protester said — to CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and finally the U.S. Capitol.
“Ironically, and despite reports to the contrary, the Egyptian people and the governing military are on the same side in this battle — confronting an enemy of freedom and democracy in Egypt, which, sadly, is being championed by the United States government and whitewashed by the mainstream media,” a statement from the Institute on Religion and Democracy said.
Ideally, Nasry, who traveled from Jersey City, N.J., said he would like to see the United States step in and help his fellow Egyptians.
“You can’t even go to Egypt,” he said. “There are five-year-olds holding guns. My hope is for Congress to stop what [Morsi’s] doing.”
But he believes Egyptians, if by no one else, will be protected by a higher power.
“It’s in God’s hands.”
