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Cairo (CNN) -- Hasan Amin has been here before.

Thugs with knives and rocks chasing down protesters. Presidential backers belittling opponents, accusing them of using "crude and contemptible ways of expression," to quote the Muslim Brotherhood. The pressure to go home and be quiet.

A few years ago, the thugs belonged to former President Hosni Mubarak. Now, Amin says, it's President Mohamed Morsy and his backers in the Muslim Brotherhood wielding the oppression.

"It's exactly the same battle," the CNN iReporter said.

Morsy, the target of intense anger from Egypt's fractious liberal opposition, was expected to speak to the nation Thursday night, a day after violent protests outside his presidential palace that left six people dead and at least 672 wounded.

In the speech, which was hours late in coming Thursday night, he was make an important announcement, his chief of staff said without elaboration.

Opposition leaders say just one thing will mollify them: Morsy must roll back his edict granting himself expanded presidential powers and postpone the scheduled December 15 referendum on a proposed constitution.

iReport: Bloody clashes around Egyptian Presidential palace

The chances of that seem remote -- Morsy has defended the edict as necessary to defend the revolution and his administration has steadfastly said the referendum will go ahead as planned.

But protesters -- who say Morsy is consolidating power for himself and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood -- say they're committed to forcing the president to bend to the democratic will of the 2011 revolution that ousted Mubarak and led to the country's first free presidential elections this year.

"This is not what we asked for," one protester said Wednesday. "It's a complete dictatorship."

Morsy's actions and the growing anger over them are the strongest test yet for Egypt's fragile democratic experiment.

Because Egypt is a key player in the unstable Middle East and North Africa, what happens there has important ramifications far beyond its borders, and is being followed closely worldwide.

"We have been watching the events unfolding in Cairo with growing concern," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday while attending a security conference in Dublin, Ireland. "The upheaval we are seeing once again in the streets of Cairo and other cities indicates that dialogue is urgently needed, and we urge all the stakeholders to settle their disputes through discussion and debate, not through violence."

Read more: Q & A: What's driving Egypt's unrest?

Still, the unrest went on.

About 40 miles north of Cairo, a crowd tried to storm Morsy's home in Zagazig, according to the Interior Ministry. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and at least 20 protesters and six police officers were injured, the ministry said.

Police arrested eight people. The suspects were carrying swords and clubs, the Interior Ministry said.

Morsy was not there at the time.

In the Maadi neighborhood of Cairo, someone also damaged the offices of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ministry said.

The scene was calm, but tense, outside the presidential palace in Cairo, where the military parked tanks and armored personnel carriers, put up barbed-wire barricades and deployed soldiers.

The area resembled a war zone. Piles of rubble and burned cars littered the streets. The doors of nearby storefronts were smashed in.

Opposition groups marched towards the area chanting "Down with Morsy" and other slogans Thursday night, as the nation waited for Morsy's speech, according to the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper.

Opponents are furious over Morsy's recent decree that gave his decisions judicial immunity until a new constitution is approved. They have also denounced the proposed constitution, which they say fails to protect civil rights and fear will give Morsy even more power.

The document was drafted by a council dominated by Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood that helped propel Morsy to power. Several liberal members walked out in protest over a lack of transparency in writing the constitution, as well as Morsy's actions.

Read more: Egyptian media strikes against President Morsy

On Thursday, Morsy suffered another defection from his inner circle. Rafik Habib, the deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party, resigned, party spokesman Ahmed Sobe said. Habib did not give a reason.

His resignation brings to five the number of presidential advisers who have left in the last two days. It is the first, however, from the Freedom and Justice Party.

Adviser Amr Ellissy said Wednesday on Twitter that he resigned "in protest of the constitutional declaration and the fact that I was not consulted in making these decisions."

Egyptian judges and media organizations also have staged strikes to show their displeasure with the situation.

Vice President Mahmoud Mekki on Wednesday asked critics to submit their proposals for improving the constitution.

Opposition leaders will talk with Morsy if he withdraws his decree and delays the referendum, said Mohamed ElBaradei, leader of the liberal Constitution Party and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Muslim Brotherhood officials seemed less inclined to bargain.

Muslim Brotherhood Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein said Thusday that protesters weren't interested in democracy. He accused them of using "crude and contemptible ways of expression, rather than (putting) their points across in a civilized manner."

Meanwhile, the blame game over who is responsible for the violence continued.

"We hold opposition figures ... fully responsible for escalation of violence & inciting their supporters," the Muslim Brotherhood said on Twitter.

On Thursday, 11 organizations representing lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, musicians and tour guides said Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood were behind the violence, al-Ahram reported.

The group said it would call for Morsy's ouster if the administration failed to protect protesters and "fulfill the aspirations of the January 25 revolution," the newspaper said.

Reza Sayah and Ian Lee reported from Cairo; Michael Pearson reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Saad Abedine and Amir Ahmed and journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy also contributed to this report.