Egypt's Islamists rally to show Morsi support -- and warn opponents

In a flurry of press conferences and statements, Morsi’s ministers have tried to quell public anger at rising prices, daily electricity cuts and the long neglected and lawless Sinai Peninsula. The minister of supply launched a campaign to reduce prices on staple foods during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The ministry of electricity and energy announced the end of months of power cuts, and the prime minister rolled out a newly approved $647 million dollar plan to develop the Sinai.

But most worrying, analysts say, is an atmosphere of intimidation that has been quietly ignored by the presidency. Islamic Group leaders have equated protests against Morsi to “a war against Islam,” and a radical preacher called those who oppose Morsi “heretics.”

In his address to supporters at Cairo’s stadium, Morsi himself issued a warning. “Some think they can undermine the stability that grows daily or undermine the resolve of people who have made their will clear…We will deal with them decisively and there will never be a place for them among us,” he said.

“We promise them, they will be crushed on this day,” Tareq al-Zomor, founder of the political wing of the radical Islamic Group told the crowd of thousands at Friday’s rally. He spent 30 years in jail for his role in killing former President Anwar Sadat and was freed only after the next Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, fell in 2011.