穆尔西的支持者坚守抗议营地

Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi are defiantly remaining at their protest camps in Cairo, despite days of warnings that the government would soon move on the sites.

Large crowds of pro-Morsi protesters were at the camps Monday night, chanting, waving flags and holding up signs of the man they say should be reinstated as president.

Saba Mahmood, associate professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, told VOA ((English to Africa)) the interim government has not broken up the camps because the resulting bloodshed would be a "very serious political cost."

But she says Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood is facing bigger stakes than getting him back in office, after the arrests of other key members of the group and moves to freeze assets it uses for political work and providing services to the community.