Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy flee shooting near Ramses Square in Cairo on Friday, August 16. Thousands defied an emergency order by taking to the streets to mark a "Friday of anger," in support of Morsy. Ferocious clashes on Wednesday, August 14, reportedly left more 500 people dead across Egypt, and authorities have declared a month-long state of emergency. The recent violence began when Egyptian security forces stormed two makeshift camps to clear out Morsy supporters. Look back at Egypt's unrest. 
A Muslim Brotherhood member and Morsy supporter wears a gas mask made out of a plastic bottle during clashes in front of the Azbkya police station on August 16. 
Morsy supporters march in Cairo. Gunfire was heard from the overpass as tear gas was fired. 
Demonstrators hurt in the clashes at Ramses Square are taken away on August 16 in Cairo. 
A military helicopter flies above demonstrators in Cairo on August 16. 
A protester receives treatment at the Al-Fath mosque in Cairo on August 16. 
Bodies of protesters who died during clashes are laid out at the Al-Fath mosque on August 16. 
A group of men gather around an injured protester in Giza on August 16. 
Demonstrators and Muslim Brotherhood supporters carry the body of a man apparently shot during clashes with security forces in Giza district on the outskirts of Cairo on August 16. 
Morsy supporters demonstrate outside Al-Fath Mosque in Ramses Square in Cairo on August 16. 
Protesters demonstrate near Ennour Mosque in Cairo on August 16. 
A flag-covered coffin of a man killed during Wednesday's clashes is carried at Amr Ibn Al-As Mosque before a funeral in Cairo on August 16. 
A protester wounded during clashes braces for help outside of a church on Mourad Street in Giza on August 16. 
Egyptian soldiers take positions alongside armored vehicles as they guard the entrance to Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday, August 16. 
A Morsy supporter takes part in a protest near Ennour Mosque in Cairo on August 16. 
People reach for a coffin on Thursday, August 15, during a funeral for police officers killed during a crackdown at two protest camps in support of Morsy. 
Egyptian police officers attend the funeral for their colleagues on August 15. 
Men are detained near a burned section of Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 15. 
People search through debris at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on August 15. 
A man on August 15 checks out a list of names of those killed in the crackdown. 
Egyptians mourn over a body wrapped in shrouds at a Cairo mosque August 15. 
Morsy supporters carry a coffin into a mosque in Cairo's Nasr City on August 15. 
A woman weeps after identifying the body of a relative on August 15 at a Cairo mosque. 
A man walks inside the burned-out Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 15. 
Motorcyclists pass by debris, including Morsy posters, in Cairo's Nahda Square on August 15. 
Supporters of Morsy shout during clashes with Egyptian police at the Rabaah Al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo's Nasr City district on August 14. 
A woman tries to stop a military bulldozer from hurting a wounded youth during clashes on August 14 in eastern Cairo. 
Morsy supporters run as Egyptian security forces fire toward them on August 14. 
An injured youth is seen at a makeshift hospital in Cairo on August 14. 
Supporters of Morsy take cover from Egyptian security forces during clashes on August 14. 
A Morsy supporter reacts after identifying the body of a dead family member at the Rabaa al-Adaweya Medical Centre on August 14 in Cairo. 
The national identity cards of protesters allegedly killed during a clear-out operation by Egyptian security forces on pro-Morsy demonstrators are exchanged at the Rabaa al-Adaweya Medical Centre on August 14. 
A Morsy supporter lies wounded on a stretcher at the Rabaa al-Adaweya Medical Centre on August 14. 
Plumes of smoke rise from the site of a protest in support of deposed President Morsy in Cairo on August 14. 
Army bulldozers remove a barricade erected by supporters of Morsy during clashes with riot police at Cairo's Mustafa Mahmoud Square on August 14. 
Supporters of Morsy push a police vehicle off the 6th of October Bridge in Cairo on August 14. 
A member of the Egyptian security forces lies on the ground in Cairo on August 14 after a police vehicle was pushed off the 6th of October Bridge. 
A man grieves at a makeshift morgue in Cairo on August 14. 
Morsy supporters confront police at Cairo's Mustafa Mahmoud Square on August 14. 
Morsy supporters carry a wounded man during clashes with riot police in Cairo on August 14. 
A Morsy supporter during clashes with police in Cairo on August 14. 
Riot police stand behind a wounded man near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14. 
Supporters of Morsy and members of the Muslim Brotherhood run from tear gas as security forces move in at the site of a pro-Morsy sit-in in Cairo on August 14. 
A Morsy supporter sits under arrest at Cairo's Nahda Square on August 14. 
Egyptians help a woman suffering from tear gas exposure in a street leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14. 
Egyptian security forces detain protesters in Cairo's Nasr City district on August 14. 
The scene from a street in Cairo's Nasr City appears chaotic as security forces clear a sit-in August 14. 
A woman tries to protect herself from tear gas in Cairo on August 14. 
Muslim Brotherhood supporters run from tear gas in a street leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14. 
Protesters gather in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on Monday, August 12. 
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- Cynthia Schneider: The Islamist vs. secular conflict is playing out in Egyption families
- She says it's a microcosm of conflict over Egyptian identity playing out in street chaos
- She says both sides being "played" by Sisi, media, who dehumanize opponents
- Schneider: Best hope is that coming, more moderate, generation can heal rifts
Editor's note: Cynthia Schneider is a professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University, dean at the School of Diplomacy at Dubrovnik International University and a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is also a former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands.
(CNN) -- When he joined his large family for the first Iftar (evening meal) of Ramadan in July, filmmaker and photographer Mohamed Radwan did not expect to find himself explaining to a hostile group why he had helped organize the sit-in at the Culture Ministry in Cairo and had marched on June 30 to oust Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy.
Indeed, the conflict within Radwan's own family is playing out in homes across Egypt. It represents a secular vs. Islamist confrontation of beliefs and visions for Egypt and is a microcosm of the clashes and violence rocking the nation as followers of ousted President Morsy fight the army and its secular supporters.
As the death toll from Wednesday's crackdown on Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda camps, and Friday's "Day of Rage," approaches 600, much more is at stake than the presidency. Egypt's very identity is being contested.
Radwan's grandfather is a founder of the radical Islamist Salafi movement, and his uncle and cousins are dedicated members of the Rabaa camp of Morsy supporters; the filmmaker found himself outnumbered at his family's gathering. But still he took the floor to explain his actions.
He and other cultural leaders had occupied the Ministry of Culture in the runup to June 30 protests, he said, to defend Egyptian culture for future generations, and to show that music, dance and theater were not haram (sinful), as Islamists had claimed, but part of the Egyptian lifeblood.
Radwan and other artists joined with the Tamarod rebellion movement for the sake of a better future for the youth, he said. "The next generation has the right to lead a good life and to have better conditions than we have," he explained to his family.
Radwan's mother also seeks a better future for Egypt, but through different means. She says she believes that an Islamist state, such as that reflected in the Wahhabi fundamentalism of her one-time home of Saudi Arabia, offers the best hope for Egypt. To her, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood means following Islam, and she cannot imagine a better path.
These deep divisions mirror those in families throughout Egypt, and led to the 2012 protests outside the presidential palace.
This is more than a dispute about political systems; it is an emotional debate that cuts to the core of being Egyptian. "They (the Muslim Brotherhood) tried to change our identity" is an accusation made by Egyptians of all walks of life-- including cab drivers, actors such as Mahmoud Awad, and veteran politicians such as Mona Makram-Ebeid. Political scientist Riham Bahi described feeling like an "alien in my own country" when it was under Muslim Brotherhood control.
One aspect of the Egyptian identity has been peaceful coexistence with Coptic Christians, who are now under attack. A violent assault on churches and Christian businesses was launched on Thursday, and in news reports was portrayed as a Muslim Brotherhood-led reaction to the crackdown on the Rabaa and Al-Nada protest camps in Cairo.
When I went to the Al-Nada camp earlier this week, one of the occupiers delivered this summary message in Arabic, "Anti-coup; restore Morsy; down with Christians." Not surprisingly for the media savvy Muslim Brotherhood, the huge banners in English above the entrance to the camp proclaimed the first two items, but not the third.
At the same time, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, like Radwan's mother, say they feel betrayed by democracy. "Where is my voice?" she asked her son, when he indicated that the legitimately elected President Morsy would not return to power.
What leverage does U.S. have with Egypt? 
Egyptian diplomat: Restore law and order 
Is Egypt another Iran? The Egyptian media's slanted reports in the weeks since Morsy's arrest have deepened the rift between the secularists and the Islamists.
State and non-Islamist private channels demonize the Muslim Brotherhood and anyone who supports it. Liberal politicians such as Amr Hamzawy and Mohamed ElBaradei, who urged restraint in dealing with the camps in Rabaa and Al-Nada, have been pilloried in the media.
This steady drumbeat of media attacks on both the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood camps and on anyone who questions their eradication has produced a climate of dehumanization, reflected in the widespread acceptance of the military regime's violent attack.
In a shrewd move, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt's military ruler, called citizens into the street weeks ago to support his fight against "potential terrorism." Hundreds of thousands or people, including revolutionaries and liberals, heeded his call, making Tahrir square -- bizarrely -- the locus of an anti-Morsy, pro-military love fest. The outpouring of support insulated Sisi from domestic criticism of the brutal crackdown that followed.
Government officials and ordinary Egyptians dismiss international condemnations of the violence. A member of the current government who asked not to be named, given the volatile climate, told me that the military tried every option to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to the table before attacking the camps. While "any form of violence is regrettable," he believes that, with Muslim Brotherhood strongholds disbanded, Egypt will have reached a "new phase" and will be able to move forward positively in the future.
Whether this is possible remains an open question.
One ray of hope can be found in the generation gap that exists within families, within the Muslim Brotherhood, and within the secularists.
Back to Radwan's family and the politicized Iftar. After Radwan had defended his beliefs before his Islamist elders, his younger-generation cousins took him aside to confess that they agreed with him. In fact, they told him they all had signed the Tamarod petition, and some had marched on June 30. But none dared confront the senior members of the family with this information.
Within the Muslim Brotherhood, a similar divide between generations exists. Attempts to innovate and open Muslim Brotherhood media and communications have met with approval from the under-40 generation as well as growing audiences, but have been censured by elders, according to a source familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named. So far, the elders have won.
If and when the next generation takes over, and positions are moderated, the deep rift between the Islamists and secularists may be healed. Then perhaps the project of the revolution will be renewed.
But, for now, the seniors are in charge. To quote the Egyptian scholar Hazem Azmy, "there is a rewind of the Nasser narrative" --referring to the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who seized power in a coup and cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood decades ago. He added: "the people have chosen security over liberty."
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Cynthia Schneider.
