But the downside is a tendency not to look too closely. Also on Sunday night, a vicious fight was taking place outside the Brotherhood’s headquarters building on the edge of the city, with a handful of supporters and a few score opponents shooting it out with real guns over its reinforced walls and sandbags. The battle was forewarned and advertised: but no one went to look, or to stop it; even state security, which was present, decided to stand aside. A burly, middle-aged agent nearby with an automatic rifle was positively jovial as he described to me what had happened and how he and his colleagues had decided it would cause too much trouble to intervene.