As I observed the ugly events of Friday, I had trouble swallowing the argument that all sides were plain wrong. To my mind it was the MB who was the instigator in all of this. Their thuggery, dishonesty, and their relentless desire to fully appropriate Tahrir is the primary cause of clashes.

Intolerance exists in every faction, but more so amongst those who claim to have a divine mission. They see those who disagree with them as apostates. Liberals, on the hand, have no problem with what others think or believe so long as they do not trespass on their own rights.

The recent conflagration was primarily about the MB trying to restrict the rights of others to object. It started there and ugliness on all sides ensued. I hoped that the battle for the constitution would be carried out through rational debate. I see now that there many religious conservatives would rather conduct this battle via a street fight.

The tectonic plates of modern Egyptian culture have collided at Tahrir. The stresses are building and left to its own devices, an Earthquake in bound to ensue. In their voracious pursuit of power and hegemony, the MB have effectively killed  the cross cultural/class dialog that characterized the early days of the revolution.