Vigilante-State Security

Now there's a situation one doesn't see in the West. Government urging powerful families, tribal entities holding social prominence and political power, to range themselves alongside government police and military to fend off the counter-attacks by a determined and defiant Muslim Brotherhood, with its own tribal and clan affiliates most among the poor and the dispossessed, the students inflamed to uphold strict Islamic ideals, and the battle is joined.

In the 1990s an Islamic insurgency mounted against then-President Hosni Mubarak saw the establishment of "popular committees" where ruling party members, parliamentarians and prominent government allies called on their extended family relationships to incite action against the militants in towns and cities. Those tactics had their success, and they've been resurrected.

Support among the religiously fundamentalist Egyptian masses for the Muslim Brotherhood remains strong.

And the clerics and the elite among the Muslim Brotherhood call upon their supporters to make their voices heard in rejection of the removal of Mohammad Morsi, and the Brotherhood from government control and power. Armed civilians from anti-Islamist and pro-government families have been encouraged to do the loyal thing for their country. Egypt needs all the support it can get for its security forces.

Armed civilians now help guard police stations, Coptic churches and other targets. They gather to confront pro-Morsi rallies. This represents an important pact reached between Egypt's security apparatus and the influential clans in the south, the most conservative geography of Egypt with its strong heritage of inter-family feuding and Islamist militancy.

Conscription of these civilian assets is vital in countering the popular appeal of the Brotherhood among the masses.

These families capable of mounting their own casual, non-state militias are given free reign to act, armed with light weaponry to face off with Islamists. There is a reward at the end of the conflict,  one that inspires these families to act at the behest of the government agents. Authorities will be prepared to support candidates from those participating families in future parliamentary elections on the near horizon.

Molotov-hurling students protesting on behalf of the Brotherhood, chanting against the military and police at the Islamic Al-Azhar University were chased by riot police. Islamist protesters tossing Molotov cocktails at security forces in Alf Maskan were met on site by civilians hurling stones working for the police side. Three police vehicles were torched, 265 protesters arrested.

And any participants in Brotherhood rallies, having by their presence more than amply declared their association with the now-declared terrorist group will be taken into custody, sentenced to five years in prison. They face the prospect of seeing armed civilians posted at demonstration sites. And their speedy apprehension, charge and imprisonment by security authorities.