Brotherhood leader urges Egypt authorities to 'refrain from violence' against protesters

A high-ranking  Muslim Brotherhood member has called on Egypt's military-backed authorities to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters supporting ousted President MohamedMorsi. "I call on all Egypt's honorable people to advise the state to stop violence, and rather address the peaceful protests with peaceful measures," Essam al-Erian, one of the most senior Brotherhood leaders still at large, said in a voice record aired by Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr, an affiliate of the Qatar-based broadcaster, early Sunday. Al-Erian also called on the Egyptian interim government to respond to foreign initiatives that aimed to break the political deadlock in the country, triggered by the July 3 military removal of Morsi, a Brotherhood leader himself. "We did not reject any initiative that is based on legitimacy, the constitution that the people approved through a referendum, and the reinstatement of the elected parliament," he added in the three-minute record. The Brotherhood leader asserted that the pro-Morsi protests would remain peaceful. "Our peaceful uprising that renounces violence follows the footsteps of several revolutions that erupted in our country among others that were based on peacefulness and eventually rendered successful," he said. Al-Erian is currently on the run from Egyptian authorities, which accuse him of inciting violence. Egypt has been in turmoil since the powerful military deposed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, after mass protests against his presidency. The unconstitutional change of government is described by the ousted president's backers as a "military coup," while the move's supporters call it a military-backed "popular uprising." On August 14, Egyptian security forces violently dispersed the two major pro-democracy camps in Rabaa al-Adawiya, eastern Cairo, and Giza's Nahda Square. The bloody crackdown left hundreds dead and thousands injured. At least 288 of those killed had been in the larger of the two protest sites in Rabaa, while 90 were killed during the dispersal of a smaller camp at Nahda near Cairo University. However, the official death toll remains far below that given by the Brotherhood's allies, which has put the number of deaths from the Rabaa sit-in alone at some 2,600.