For the second time this summer, Muhammed Shoubir rode from New York City to Washington, DC, to protest what he calls the “anti-democratic military coup” that on July 3 ousted former president and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi.

With glasses and a trimmed beard and mustache, Shoubir, originally from Tanta, bears a striking resemblance to Morsi, whose Islamist party he says he supports, though he is not a member. In the 2011 Egyptian presidential elections, he voted from abroad for the independent Islamist Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and then for Morsi in the runoff.

“We need to send a message to all American people about what’s happening in Egypt,” said Shoubir, referring to the military’s bloody dispersal on Aug. 14 of a pro-Morsi sit-in at Rabia al-Adawiya Square in Nasr City, Cairo. “We are not there to be with them.”

On Saturday, Aug. 31, several hundred Egyptians from across the country gathered in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, one in a string of protests organized by Egyptians in America who oppose the July 3 military takeover and largely support the deposed elected Islamist leader. As more busloads joined, they marched to the office of the Egyptian military attaché, chanting slogans in English calling to “Free Egypt.”