Protesters held signs accusing deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s government of persecuting Coptic Christians and burning churches. The group said the Muslim Brotherhood has ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, and blamed them for the violence that has erupted across the country.
The protesters accused the Obama administration of tacitly supporting Morsi and lambasted U.S. media organizations for misrepresenting the events there. The group planned to move north through Washington later in the day to the offices of The Washington Post and CNN.
The protests were organized by Coptic Solidarity, a Washington-based 501(c)(3) “devoted to helping the Copts of Egypt attain their inalienable human rights.”
“The objective is to expose and denounce the terrorist acts by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies around the world, and to expose the bias of the Obama administration and the American media towards the Brotherhood,” the group said in a statement on its website.
The protesters agreed with the Obama administration on at least one point, arguing that the overthrow of the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president was not a coup because it had the support of 33 million Egyptians.
The White House has said it won’t officially call the overthrow a coup, although that’s largely because it would require a complete halt in all aid to the country.
The protests come on the heels of mounting violence in Egypt after military rulers cracked down on Islamist supporters of Morsi. Reports said hundreds, on both sides, have been killed in clashes.
The White House has said it is evaluating aid to Egypt, as pressure mounts on Capitol Hill for the U.S. to suspend all assistance.
Top GOP lawmakers, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.), have called for the administration to suspend all aid and take a hard line in dealing with Cairo.
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The Hill http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/318329-anti-muslim-brotherhood-protesters-rally-outside-the-white-house