Vigilantes emerge as menacing force in Egypt as mosque siege ends

The siege at a Cairo mosque Saturday highlighted the specter of Egypt spiraling into civil strife and factional bloodshed among the army, Islamists and bands of vigilantes who are emerging as a dangerous third force in the nation's turmoil.

That troubling prospect was evident even as imams from Egypt's top religious institution late in the day succeeded in ending the standoff at Al Fatih mosque, where hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and anti-military protesters had hunkered as mobs cursed them from the streets amid the rattle of automatic weapons fire.

Clerics from Al Azhar — Sunni Islam's most revered university, although distrusted by the Brotherhood — hurried through tear gas Saturday and entered the mosque in Ramses Square. Shortly after nightfall, the Interior Ministry announced the standoff was over as the last of the protesters, some of whom were arrested, exited under police protection.

<snip>

For much of the day, security forces did not prevent mobs from massing around the mosque or from beating Brotherhood followers as they exited the building and were hurried toward police trucks. Those in the crowd, mostly young men, brimmed with rage, many of them shaped by an us-against-them nationalism perpetuated by the military in recent weeks.

<snip>

"This isn't the way it's supposed to be," said Hamdi Abdelgelil, who stood in the courtyard of the mosque as men with sticks pummeled a man attempting to leave. "Beat him, beat him," they chanted as the man retreated back inside, running up stairs that were speckled with blood.

<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-vigilantes-20130818,0,7825353.story