CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptians marched toward the president's palace early Friday afternoon for another day of demonstrations against the president while thousands of his Islamist backers gathered outside the country's most respected Islamic institution for a funeral for two men killed in Wednesday's bloody clashes.

Egypt's simmering political crisis showed no signs of letting up the day after President Mohammed Morsi responded to the violence outside his palace with a fiery speech denouncing his opponents, deepening the crisis. The opposition turned down his appeal for talks, saying the president had not fulfilled their conditions for beginning negotiations.

At the funeral held by Morsi's Islamist backers after midday prayers at Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's premier Islamic institution, a hardline Muslim cleric denounced anti-Morsi protesters as "traitors." Mourners yelled that opposition leaders were "murderers." In a twist on a revolutionary chant from the 2011 uprising, they also yelled for "bread, freedom, and Islamic law."