The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has scheduled rallies for this Sunday in support of the Egypt’s Brotherhood-linked former President Mohammed Morsi. As part of the Brotherhood’s efforts to mobilize supporters, they have taken to excoriating the Egyptian military that – amid mass nation-wide protests calling for his resignation – acted to remove the former president. There are suggestions that the Brotherhood’s anti-army statements have gotten a little too ardent:

gypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has sharply criticized the military for ousting the country’s Islamist president, comparing its rule to that of Adolf Hitler or Roman emperor Nero. Thursday’s criticism appears designed to whip up support for the Brotherhood and its planned rally on Sunday against the military.

Observers are now expressing worries that the Brotherhood’s incitement may trigger violence. A teenager was already killed in clashes Wednesday between Morsi supporters and opponents.

The army-backed government, for its part, has been pressing a decapitation campaign which the Washington Post today described as driving the Brotherhood into a crisis:

But the Brotherhood is in an existential crisis, unsure how to adapt under the heaviest crackdown since the 1960s, carried out by a new military-backed government determined to end the group, at least in the form it has been in for the past 85 years. With neither side interested in talking for now, the Brotherhood’s crippled leadership is reduced to minimizing its losses until it finds an exit from the crisis. It is turning to its international leaders for help in decision-making and waging a campaign of persistent, if small protests to prove it cannot be crushed.

Washington Institute fellow Eric Trager recently outlined three scenarios that are likely to unfold as the military continues its campaign against the Brotherhood. All three resulted in the functional eradication of the Brotherhood as a coherent organization operating inside Egypt’s borders.

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