CAIRO – Egyptian opposition leaders rejected Friday a national dialogue proposal by President Mohamed Morsi as thousands of protesters converged on the presidential palace in a fresh bid to convince the president to give up what they see as dictatorial powers, and to postpone a referendum on a controversial new constitution. A leader of the main opposition coalition said it would not join Morsi's dialogue: “The National Salvation Front is not taking part in the dialogue,” said Ahmed Said, a leader of the coalition, who also heads the liberal Free Egyptians Party. The Front's coordinator, Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace laureate, urged “national forces” to shun what he called an offer based on “arm-twisting and imposition of a fait accompli.” Morsi had offered few concessions in a speech late Thursday, refusing to retract a Nov. 22 decree in which he assumed sweeping powers or cancel a referendum next week on a constitution newly drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly. Instead, he called for a dialogue at his office Saturday to chart a way forward for Egypt after the referendum, an idea that liberal, leftist and other opposition leaders rebuffed. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir square in response to calls by the April 6 movement, which played a prominent role in igniting last year's revolt. It wants to show Morsi a “red card”, using a soccer metaphor for his dismissal. Elsewhere, thousands of Islamists gathered at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque for the funeral of what they called “martyrs” killed in the clashes. “Our souls and blood, we sacrifice to Islam,” they chanted. Seeking to rally their side, a series of speakers to the crowd portrayed the opposition as tools of the regime of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak — or as decadent and un-Islamic — and vowed to defend a constitution they say brings Islamic law to Egypt. “Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” the crowd chanted in a funeral procession filling streets around the mosque. During the funeral, thousands chanted, “With blood and soul, we redeem Islam,” pumping their fists in the air. Mourners yelled that opposition leaders were “murderers.” One hardline cleric speaking to the crowd denounced anti-Morsi protesters as “traitors.” Another declared that they will not allow Egypt to become “a den of hash smokers.” At the same time, thousands of protesters against Morsi streamed in several marches from different parts of Cairo toward his presidential palace in an upscale neighborhood for a third straight day. Many were furious over the president's speech the night before in which he accused “hired thugs” of attacking protesters outside the palace Wednesday, sparking the clashes. At the rings of barbed wire outside the palace, protesters chanted, “Leave, leave,” and “the people want the fall of the regime.” “After the bloodshed, we will not put our hands in the hands of those who killed new martyrs,” Hamdeen Sabahi, a leading figure in the National Salvation Front, told protesters gathered Friday in central Tahrir Square. The April 6 movement, which played a key role in sparking the uprising against Mubarak, called its supporters to gather at mosques in Cairo and the neighboring city of Giza to march to the palace. Rival protests also took place in cities around the country, including in the cities of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Luxor in the south. The two sides pelted each other with stones outside the headquarters of the Brotherhood office in Nile Delta city of Kom Hamada, in the province of Beheira. In the Delta industrial city of Mahallah, protesters cut railroads stopping trains and announcing a sit in until cancelation of Morsi's decrees and the referendum. – With agencies
