Friday, November 18, 2011

#Nov18 : Tahrir is packed

More than 100,000 are estimated  to be in Tahrir square , the scenes of the Tahrir square during the Friday prayers were impressive.  “Tahrir sqaure at 1:30 PM by Sherin Tadrus from Al Jazeera international

It seems that the #Nov18 is successful so far. Of course we will not know if it continues to be successful or not when 6 PM comes and we will know who will stay and who will leave. Needless to say that there is strong undeniable presence for the Islamists force across all the protests stopped all over the country.

It is unclear if there will be a sit in or not but it seems that members of April 6 Youth movement "Democratic front" are going to have a sit in at Tahrir square.

Potential Presidential candidates Hazem Abu Islam , Salim El Awa and Ayman Nour are participating n the protest. Bothania Kamel is heading to the square in a rally against military trials.

Here is a video shot from short awhile ago from Tahrir square.

Tahrir square : From short while ago

I will not comment on Mazhar Shahin’s speech because I think the man and I will consider that enthusiasm made him say what he said from how one Tahrir battalion will beat the crap out of Israel to the end of this talk.

There are 4 stages set up at Tahrir square. The chants are all against the military rule and SCAF so. Most of the flags in the square are Egyptian flags.

Alaa Abdel Fatah Seif’s supporters and friends will celebrate his birthday at 6 PM in the square. 

April 6th Youth Movement organized a rally at the cabinet HQ then it headed to the square.

The rallies have started already from Giza and Mohendessin and according to eye witnesses they are big.  The rallies are demanding a handover to power in the nearest time possible.

The rally from Mohendessin started from Mustafa Mahmoud mosque. Wael Ghonim is among the participants in this rally. Here are couple of snap shots by Maggie Osama and Rou El Shimi

From Rou El Shemi.

Here is a video from the Giza rally

Giza : A rally from short while ago

There are huge protests as well in Alexandria , Tanta, Suez, Port Said , Damietta and Sohag.

Story is developing.

Singing Halim’s song we used to sing in the 18 days.

Tahrir : Sora , sora , sora

@2:33 PM Cairo local time

The rally from Mustafa Mahmoud has reached to Tahrir square.

There is another interesting rally from Salafists at Talaat Harb street heading to Tahrir square chanting Islamists , Islamists.

The Islamist powers from MB and Salafists are leading the rally heading to the Northern military zone in Alexandria.

A Yemeni lady spoke from the MB’s stage against Saleh and EL Assad asking for a million man protest in Tahrir square against Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Hundreds are protesting against the document and against Field Marshal Tantawy in Bani Sawif as well as in Mania and Ismailia governorates.

The army distributed flyers in Suez that it does not want the rule and it will hold elections as soon as possible to hand over power to civilian elected authority.

Mohamed Salim El Awa will start a sit along the democratic front of April 6th Youth movement and Hazem Abu Ismail.

Freedom and Justice party members told DNE’s Farah Saafan that they will leave at 8 PM and that if they do not get a response that please them from SCAF , they will escalate the protesting to sit in

This is gambling and some sort of pressure power.

A photo gallery from Tahrir square from Ahram Online by Mai Shahin 

@3:10 PM Cairo local time

A military source says to Al Masry Al Youm that SCAF will hand over the power in 2012

@4:02 PM Cairo local time

A protest from leftists headed by revolutionary socialists heading to Maspero to demand a better media policy.

Here is a video from the rally at Mustafa Mahmoud square earlier.

Youm 7 : Mustafa Mahmoud rally

@5:11 PM Cairo local time

Thousands are praying at Tahrir square now. The numbers began to decrease according to eye witnesses.

Al Ahram portal denied the news of Al Masry Al Youm that SCAF will hand over the power in 2012.

Al Ahram has published my Safwat Hegazy’s photo as archived photo !!

There are conflicting reports about the sit in with groups and against it. It is unclear.

The Egyptian TV claims that today’s protest was about El Salmi’s document , of course they hosted those guests from the team against the Islamists.

There are also conflicting opinions about the protests , some liberals are against it and feel it was Islamists show off. Of course if all the liberals went down may be it would not be like that. I heard one interesting opinion that the Islamists especially the MB are playing game with SCAF at the same time they are having good electoral campaign appearing as anti-SCAF power.

There have been protests in more than 9 governorates : Cairo , Alexandria, Suez, Ismailiya , Gharbia , Port Said , Al Mania , Sohag, Aswan , Fayoum , Behaira , Matrouh and Luxor. Most of these protests have got that Islamist character that no one can deny.

11:07 PM Cairo local time

The government denied the news that it will revoke the bloody El Salmi document to beyond the parliamentary elections.
It is officially branded as Islamists Friday despite there were other leftists and liberals in the media.
5 potential presidential candidates participated in the protest : Mohamed Salim El Awa, Ayman Nour , Abdel Monem Abu El Fatouh, Bothaina Kamel and Hazem Abu Ismail.
Alaa Abdel Fatah's family and friends celebrated his birthday at Tahair square.
Despite he said that he will start a sit in till SCAF announces that presidential elections will be held after the parliamentary elections,Abu Ismail did not start that sit in . All the Islamists have left.
Most people left yet there are small groups at the square. A group of activists decided to have a sit in including Nawara Negm if the news I got was true.
Some say that the traffic is closed by the sit in protesters of course in the morning it will be opened
Painter and self appointed leader Salah Anany is back and he announced that he will form a presidential council.
Guys no offense but if we are truly speaking about million man protest that would the friend before the enemy beware our power as people then we have to be honest with ourselves and say what is wrong in our side before blaming it as usual as SCAF.
I think we should work on the next million man protest starting next year after the elections as the parliamentary elections will be an indicator to where we are going exactly.
I think we should think Egypt first before anything including the revolution, Egypt is our goal while the revolution is just a means. Now after praising them at day , Egyptian tweeps mostly from leftists and liberals are cursing them at night.

10 comments:

  1. What kind of coverage Egyptian State TV is running of these protests?

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  2. Unbelievably... so many people gathered. I guess it's really good that people use their democratic rights. Just hoping it will continue without any violence whatsoever.

    Interesting pics.

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  3. Egyptian TV showed everything. Nile International showed a permanent screeshot live on one side of the screen throughout all normal programs.

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  4. We arrived downtown at around 12:45pm, from the May 15 Bridge. We could see many large buses and microbuses either parked under the bridge or stopped in downtown streets, with very poor-looking people being led off by organizers dressed in fluorescent green traffic vests, who guided them towards Tahrir Square.

    The crowd was huge, way, way more than 100,000, but the vast majority didn't look like they were there for a political demonstration, but for a family picnic.

    Every green space and most sidewalks were covered with women and children and men eating from styrofoam trays and koshary containers and looking around them. The amount of garbage in the Midan and all over the streets was unbelievable.

    Around 3 or 4 really big Salafist stages were set up, but the crowd around them seemed quite passive. I decided to take a chance during a brief silence in the speech by some Salafist guy (that nobody seemed to be listening to) and yelled out at the top of my lungs: "We are in Egypt, not Saudi Arabia!" There was no reaction. Some people smiled at me.

    Somebody handed me a Hazem Abu Ismail leaflet. I tore it up and then stepped on the pieces. The guy who handed it to me just smiled. He couldn't care less.

    I went back towards Talaat Harb, where there was a very big, loud march towards Tahrir: they were Leftists, carrying signs for the Socialist and Communist Parties. Their chants were so loud they echoed, mostly against the SCAF. My personal favorite was:

    "Matlab wahed lel sowwar,
    madaneya ya homar!"

    Maybe a half-hour later, they were followed by another loud march, with tabla, for "no to military trials", carrying signs with Mina Daniel and Alaa Abdel Fatah's pictures. They chanted against the SCAF and military rule.

    Still later, there was another march, this time led by Salafists, yelling "Islameya, Islameya." It was bigger, but most of the marchers weren't even joining the chants. Unlike the other marches, this one was being guided by those men in fluorescent green traffic vests I saw earlier.

    I went back to Tahrir, and it was a big mess. It didn't look like any kind of political rally. There was not even a hint of the kind of solidarity and purpose and energy that I had seen in Tahrir back in February, or even on May 27. People were milling around aimlessly, stepping around the picnickers and the others sitting on the ground eating. Most people seemed to have no idea why they were even there.

    I think it was a mistake for the Leftist/Liberal/January 25 revolutionaries to participate in this phony "millioneya", for which the Islamists bussed in poor people from all over the country just to use them as extras or props in their show.

    Instead of demonstrating a strong and unified will, it reflected disarray and confusion and sent conflicting messages, and nothing was accomplished.

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  5. Here's a video of one of the Leftist marches being gathered at Talaat Harb before setting out towards Tahrir:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cvaJdyrXLA

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  6. @Alice yelled out at the top of my lungs: "We are in Egypt, not Saudi Arabia!" There was no reaction. Some people smiled at me. Somebody handed me a Hazem Abu Ismail leaflet. I tore it up and then stepped on the pieces.

    Really? Good for you, seriously. Please record your defiance on video next time.

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  7. Nice post Alice!

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  8. @Jason, get a life. Your approval and requests are equally unwelcome.

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  9. @Alice, I was going to ask you out, but now forget it.

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  10. I was under the impression that elections were to be held six months after the fall of the former government. I realize that things don't always go as planed, but after seeing the outcome of this current demonstration (we got reports of 2 killed and 600 injured) I'm wondering if the military would like to hold power much longer.
    Now the question remains will the country go to the islamists or become something secular? I'm sure your readers could answer that question just by general consensus.

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