As more than 100,000 Egyptians marched on the presidential palace in Cairo on Tuesday over President Mohammed Morsi's recent seizure of nearly unrestricted powers and a controversial draft constitution, America's involvement with the ongoing crisis was on the minds of many, according to one source on the ground in Cairo.
Karim Amer, a filmmaker in Egypt, spoke via telephone with HuffPost Live host Alyona Minkovski to give his first hand account of the latest protests in the troubled nation. Amer said that many protesters were "angry" with America as well as with the Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, a group he said is causing serious polarization in the country.
"There's a huge backlash towards America right now in the streets in Egypt," Amer told HuffPost Live. "A lot of people really, really are extremely angry with the positions America has taken and it's going to create a lot of problems going forward, unfortunately, with Egypt-U.S. relations."
Amer added that an ex-army general with whom he spoke "was saying that the position that the U.S. has taken during the Egyptian revolution are probably going to lead to a new relationship between the army and the U.S., more similar to how they were during Nasser's time."
Gamal Abdel Nasser, who in 1956 became the second president of Egypt after the 1952 revolution, instituted policies that strained relations with European countries and the United States. Among other things, Nasser made an arms deal with the Soviet Union and officially recognized communist China, moves which hurt American support for his regime and led the U.S. to withdraw financial support for the Aswan High Dam project. Nasser also nationalized the Suez Canal and cut off Israeli shipments through the vital trade route.
But Amer also said Egyptians were upset with the Muslim Brotherhood. In the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and subsequent ousting of Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsi, backed by the Brotherhood, became the fifth elected Egyptian president.
"I think the Muslim Brotherhood are playing a very dangerous game," Amer said. "I think that their pride -- their hubris, so to speak -- has gotten ahead of them and they really believe that they have much more dominance in the country than they really do."
Watch the full segment, "Second Spring," on HuffPost Live.