Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters of ousted head of state Mohamed Morsi hold a poster of him as they shout slogans at the Raba El-Adwyia Square, Inset: Adly Mansour gestures at his swearing in ceremony as the interim president in Cairo, Thursday. — Reuters CAIRO — A day after staging a coup and detaining head of state Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian army consolidated its grip on power Thursday by installing an interim president and launching a widespread crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters. Adly Mansour, Egypt's Chief Justice and head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in as interim president to replace Morsi and the military launched a major crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood. But, reeling from what it called a military coup against democracy, the group remained defiant saying it would not work with the new political system. Perhaps aware of the risk of a polarized society, Mansour used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood. “The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed,” he said. Meanwhile, an Islamist coalition led by the Muslim Brotherhood appealed to Egyptians to demonstrate across the nation in a “Friday of Rejection” against the military coup. The National Coalition in Support of Legitimacy “calls on the Egyptian people to take to the streets and mobilize peacefully” after Friday prayers “to say ‘No' to military detentions, ‘No' to the military coup”. The sweep against the Brotherhood leadership included the group's top leader, a figure venerated among its followers, Mohammed Badie. He was arrested from a villa where he had been staying at a Mediterranean coastal city and flown by helicopter to Cairo, security officials said. The Brotherhood announced it wanted nothing to do with the new political system. “We declare our complete rejection of the military coup staged against the elected president and the will of the nation,” the Brotherhood said in a statement that the group's senior cleric Abdel-Rahman El-Barr read to Morsi's supporters staging a days-long sit-in in Cairo. There are fears of a violent backlash from Islamists against the army move, particularly from hard-liners, some of whom belong to former armed militant groups. Clashes between Islamists and police erupted in multiple places around the country after the army took over, leaving at least nine dead. Morsi has been detained in an unknown location. At least a dozen of his senior aides and advisers are being held in what is described as house arrest. Also arrested are Badie's predecessor, Mehdi Akef; the head of the Brotherhood's political party, Saad Katatni; one of Badie's deputies Rashad Bayoumi; and ultraconservative Salafi figure Hazem Abu Ismail, who has a considerable street following. Authorities have also issued a wanted list for more than 200 Brotherhood members and leaders of other Islamist groups. Among them is Khairat Al-Shater, another deputy of Badie. — Agencies See also: ElBaradei back in political limelight Morsi no stranger to underground politics
