CAIRO (AA) – Pro-democracy students at Cairo's Azhar University held fresh protests on campus for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday to demand the release of detained students and denounce the July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi by Egypt's powerful military establishment.
An all-female march roamed the university's campus for women, chanting slogans against leaders of the "military coup" against Morsi.
They also denounced Azhar University President Osama al-Abd over the latter's public support for the ouster of Egypt's first freely-elected leader.
They further demanded "retribution" for protesters killed in the unrest that has engulfed the country since Morsi's overthrow, including those slain during the violent dispersal in mid-August of two main pro-Morsi sit-ins.
Protesting students on the men's campus, meanwhile, stormed several faculty buildings and disrupted classes.
In a statement, Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb called for calm and asked students to focus on their studies.
Ahmed al-Baqari, head of the Azhar University student union, declared in a statement that student uprisings "will take to the streets across Egypt to protest the coup and support [democratic] legitimacy."
University administrators, for their part, have threatened to penalize any student found spray-painting "obscene slogans" on university property. Violators, they warned, would face suspension of up to two years.
Al-Abd, however, denied that any students had been suspended for demonstrating.
On Sunday, at least 41 Azhar students were arrested during protests outside the university that later devolved into clashes with police.
Al-Azhar University postponed the launch of the academic year (which normally starts in September) to the beginning of this week due to what university administrators described as "unfinished maintenance work."
Student sources, however, say the move was taken for "security reasons," especially given the fact that Al-Azhar University is considered a bastion of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated student activity.
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