• 14:31
  • Tuesday ,10 April 2012
العربية

Shater's supporters, opponents battle on social media

By-Almasry Alyoum

Copts and Poliltical Islam

00:04

Tuesday ,10 April 2012

Shater's supporters, opponents battle on social media

Electronic warfare between Khairat al-Shater's supporters and opponents has escalated on social networking websites since the Brotherhood leader was nominated to run last week. On Facebook, the number of fans of the "I will not elect Khairat al-Shater" page reached 141000, compared to the 90000 fans of Shater's official campaign page.

The supporters published posters for Shater bearing slogans backing him for presidency like "Khairat al-Shater president of the republic," and "Yes to the engineer of renaissance."
 
But other mocking slogans were also circulated, such as, "Youssef of the age has come out of prison to rule Egypt," "Oh Khairat, Oh Shater (clever), take us to the aqueducts," and "We will live alone, die of your spite" (in reference to Abu Ismail's slogan 'We will live with dignity' and the usual response of pro-Islamists to opponents saying 'Die of your spite').
 
Shater's supporters stated 10 reasons that Egyptians should elect him for president, including that he has "a bright political and security mentality," so that the dissolved  State Security  used to call him "Director of Brothers' Security [Directorate]".
 
Founders of the tongue-in-cheek named page "Do not argue or discuss, you are a Brother" criticized the nomination of Shater and published former statements by him, in which he said the Brotherhood would not support any of its members in the presidential elections.