Egypt is in a flux and there is growing concern that the worst is yet to come. With rival factions in no mood for rapprochement, the outlook is looking grim.

The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected a road map for a new constitution and elections issued by Egyptian interim president Adli Mansour.  Essam al-Erian, deputy leader of the brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, feels the plan  will bring “the country back to square one”.

Mansour’s road map calls for a group of experts to revise the 2012 constitution, which was drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly and approved in a referendum. The new charter would then be put to a popular vote by late November. The new road map also calls for new elections in six months.

“Now it is clear that they are not just targeting the president but the identity and rights of the people, their freedom and democracy,” al-Erian says. And he has reasons to worry.

The Egyptian military has, of course, pledged its backing to the road map.

“No party is entitled to defy the people’s will and their vision of their future, for the destinies of nations are too important and too sacred to be an object of manoeuvring or obstruction, whatever the pretext might be,” it notes.

“The Egyptian people will not consent to that and the armed forces will not accept it,” it adds, in a warning to groups who have rejected the road map.

The Brotherhood and its allies have vowed to continue protests until ousted president Mohamed Mursi is brought back to power. The army forced him from office last week after street protests demanded the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically-elected president.

Mansour’s declaration came after a bloody day that saw more than 50 people killed in dawn clashes between security forces and Islamist protesters calling for Mursi’s reinstatement.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters say the army opened fire on them as they prayed outside a building where they believe Mursi is held, contradicting the military’s account that gunmen had attacked first.

The worst day of violence in more than a year has left Egypt more divided than ever in its modern history.

Qatar’s call to Egyptians “to exercise self-restraint at this critical stage of Egypt’s history”, assumes importance in this context.

Expressing deep concern over the “regrettable” incidents that had occurred on Sunday evening in various parts of Egypt, resulting in death and injury of dozens, an official source at Qatar’s Foreign Ministry urged Egyptians to strengthen national unity and seek to settle differences through dialogue “in order to maintain the security, safety and stability of their country and to protect citizens”.

Egyptians, one hopes, will realise that reconciliation, coexistence and understanding are essential to national unity and under a true democratic system.