Egypt Ideology Devolves Into Anarchy Amid Vendettas

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-14/anarchists-fight-islamists-as-egypt-drifts-into-violence.html

Perched on a rooftop, his face concealed by a black mask, an Egyptian anarchist lobbed a firebomb at the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the name of a “second revolution.”

Down at street level, the Brotherhood -- the Islamist organization from which President Mohamed Mursi hailed -- was waiting. Supporters including Abdel Rahman el-Beyaly had gotten wind of the plan in March to target the group’s Cairo office, and headed there to defend it. “After burning offices, they will go one step further,” el-Beyaly said.

That same month, hundreds of miles south along the Nile in Assiut, the Gamaa Islamiya, a once-violent Islamist group, was signing up volunteers for “popular committees” whose job, it said, would be to keep order. The plan sparked fears, especially among the city’s Christians, that the committees may evolve into a front for Islamist vigilantism.

Two years into the polarizing transition from the rule of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, political movements in Egypt have shown a growing willingness to confront opponents with force or take the law into their own hands. With security weakened, the concern is that there will be no effective authority to stop them.