Muslim Brotherhood says HQ under attack as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians stream onto the streets

One can only hope that the whole damn country burns to the ground.

THIS is what democracy looks like!

The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.

Muslim Brotherhood says HQ under attack as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians stream onto the streets

More than 200,000 anti-Morsi protesters gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square, while over 100,000 go out on the streets in Alexandria; over 20,000 Morsi supporters congregate near the presidential palace in Cairo.

CAIRO - Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood said its Cairo headquarters came under attack on Sunday from scores of anti-government protesters firing shotguns and throwing petrol bombs and rocks.

The attack came amid mass protests of hundreds of thousands of Egyptians on the first anniversary of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's inauguration demanding his resignation.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said he was in contact by telephone with staff at the compound, who told him its fortified perimeter had not been penetrated. Several provincial offices of the movement have been attacked in recent days.

One person was killed and more than two dozen injured in fighting on Sunday between Morsi supporters and opponents in the Nile city of Beni Suef, south of Cairo, security sources said. It was the first death reported on the day.

Waving national flags and chanting "Get out!", a crowd of more than 200,000 had massed by sunset on Cairo's central Tahrir Square in the biggest demonstration since the 2011 uprising that overthrew Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

"The people want the fall of the regime!" they shouted, echoing the Arab Spring rallying cry that brought down Mubarak - this time yelling it not against an aging dictator but against the first elected leader in Egypt's 5,000 year recorded history.

Many bellowed their anger at Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, accused of hijacking the revolution and using electoral victories to monopolize power and push through Islamic law.

Others have been alienated by a deepening economic crisis and worsening personal security, aggravated by a political deadlock over which Morsi has presided.

As the working day ended and 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) heat eased, more protesters converged through the eerily deserted streets of the shuttered city center, while smaller crowds protested in several other areas of the capital.

The veteran leaders of Egypt's secular, liberal and left-wing opposition, including former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei and leftist presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, joined protest marches in Cairo.

A Reuters journalist said hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, Egypt's second city, and a military source reported protests in at least 20 towns around the country.

Morsi, an engineering professor propelled to power by the Muslim Brotherhood, was monitoring events from the heavily guarded Qubba presidential palace, where an official spokesman appealed for the demonstrations to remain peaceful.

"Maintaining the security of Egypt is the common responsibility of everyone," presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy told a news conference. "Dialogue is the only way to reach mutual understanding and to reach national agreement around the different issues of our homeland."

Legitimacy

Security sources said three Brotherhood offices were set on fire by demonstrators in towns in the Nile Delta - the latest in more than a week of sporadic violence in which hundreds have been hurt and several killed, including a Jewish American student.

More than 20,000 supporters of Morsi congregated outside a Cairo mosque not far from another suburban presidential palace, where protest organizers planned a sit-in from Sunday evening.

Morsi voiced his determination to ride out what he sees as an undemocratic attack on his electoral legitimacy. But he also offered to revise the new, Islamist-inspired constitution, saying clauses on religious authority, which fueled liberal resentment, were not his choice.

He made a similar offer last week, after the head of the army issued a strong call for politicians to compromise. But the opposition dismissed it as too little to late. They hope Morsi will resign in the face of large numbers on the streets.

"We call on Mohamed Morsi, who has completely lost the legitimacy of his power, to quickly respond to the clear will of the people which is plain today in all corners of revolutionary Egypt," the June 30 movement, which organized a nationwide petition demanding his resignation, said in a statement.

Some Egyptians seem to believe the army might force the president's hand, if not to quit then at least to make major concessions to the opposition.

In Cairo, demonstrators stopped to shake hands and take photographs with soldiers guarding key buildings. At least six high-ranking police officers took to the Tahrir Square podium in support of demonstrators, a Reuters witness said.