Tilhengere og motstandere av den nye egyptiske grunnnloven støtte sammen i Alexandria fredag. Lørdag er det annen omgang i folkeavstemningen.

Security forces cordoned off streets leading to the Qaed Ibrahim mosque in the heart of the city on the Mediterranean coast, where thousands of Salafi Islamists staged a demonstration they called «the million-man rally to defend clerics and mosques».

The rally came in response to last week’s violence, when well-known ultraconservative Salafi preacher Sheik Ahmed el -Mahalawi was trapped inside the mosque while his supporters battled opponents outside with swords and firebombs.

El-Mahalawi stirred anger with a sermon last Friday, when he denounced opponents of the Islamist-friendly constitution as «followers of heretics».

Morsi and his backers say the new constitution is needed to seal a transition from decades of military-backed autocratic rule, while opponents say it ignores the rights of women and minorities, including the 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian.
But a leading Muslim Brotherhood official dismissed concerns that the new constitution will lead to greater division or upset Egypt’s fragile political balance.

«Egypt is not divided and is not facing any internal dangers,» said Essam El-Erian, the deputy head of the Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party.

«In reality Egypt is now on the verge of building a new political system that will be open to all political forces,» he said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/20121221114515756157.html