Protest image (SNA)

SNA (Tokyo) — Elements of Tokyo’s Egyptian and Muslim communities protested in front of the Egyptian Embassy on the evening of August 18. The participants included both supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, but those whom the SNA spoke to were united on the ideas that the violence in the their homeland must end and that military rule of the nation is unacceptable.

A young Tunisian woman explained why she joined the protest as follows: “Today I came here because I am anti-coup and I am watching TV everyday. Many kids, women, and men were killed… I came here today to say to [Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces] Sisi that I’m anti-coup. I’m with democracy and I’m with Egyptian freedom.”

One of the men who organized the protest claimed that the Egyptian community in Japan was becoming increasingly unified in its demands: “Before we had some groups for Morsi and some groups against Morsi. But now we are past this issue and have gone on to the main point, which is the principle of human beings; freedom and democracy and liberty. All of us support this now. So we are fighting together and we came together today, not just to support this party or that party, but to support our Revolution, to support our identity, to support our freedom.”

Finally, one Egyptian woman that the SNA spoke to indicated that she personally knew some of those killed in a recent massacre: “A lot of people were killed. Myself I know three people who were killed. They were very young. They were pharmacists. I am a pharmacist and they were my colleagues in a faculty. So this is very frustrating. We want our country to move forward.”

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