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Friday, May 27, 2011

#May27 Tahrir : Protect Yourself and the revolution

Today is the day , today is #May27 where thousands we hope to turn in to millions will head to Tahrir square in order to remind the government and the SCAF with our demands.
SCAF said that it had no problem at with #May 27 and that it supports peaceful protests as long as it does not turn in to a strike. The council stated through its members in the past 72 hours that this would a good chance to know what the people or rather the youth want. Still SCAF warned from attempts targeting the day and also targeting the relations between the army and the people thus it took a decision and decided that the army will withdraw from all the protesting locations in Statement no.58 issued yesterday. The army in Tahrir will be only protecting the important buildings like the museums , the cabinet , the parliament and the embassies. The army made it clear that securing the square during the protest in the mission of the revolutionaries and the protesters as it was always been in those wonderful 18 days. The SCAF wants us to arrest anyone in a military suit in the square and actually I agree on this because we do not need any other April 8th disaster.
Some people welcomed the statement and considered it a good sign while other people felt that it was an open invitation for Mubarak’s thugs to head for the Tahrir square and have another camel battle. Many people expect a thugs attack today in Tahrir square including my family , many people are extremely worried.
Nevertheless the revolutionaries since yesterday night headed to the square and began to form popular committees from men and women to protect the square. 6th April youth promised to secure the entrance and exists of the square.
This photo was taken there at Fajr prayer by Ahmed Bermawy

Many names are expected to join the protest today which officially starts after Friday prayer like Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei , Fahmi Howaidy, Belal Fadl, and Alaa Al Aswany. There are rallies planned from several mosques in Cairo and Giza. There will be parallel protests in other governorates like Hurghada , Alexandria, Mansoura and Suez
The importance of the day is not only about the demands but rather to test the powers of the political groups and parties in Egypt , the Muslim brotherhood will not officially participate in the protest in an attempt to show its size in the street and that without its participation the protest will fail. Of course this arrogance because from what I saw in the previous million man protests since the first one on February 1st,2011 the real power in the square was from the Egyptian people and specifically the silent majority that decided to head in to the square , its own liberation square.
I do not lose hope and despite all dangers and threats insh Allah I feel we will pass the day.I hope the thousands will turn in to a million in this extreme hot day insh Allah. The message will be very powerful whether to the SCAF or the government or any political group. The message actually will be extremely powerful to Mubarak and his thugs : You and your thugs have no place in Egypt , the new Egypt insh Allah and we will be united.
By the way I do not know what this Friday is actually called , too many names still the good thing in Tahrir now is that the people have removed the demand to have a presidential council and all anti SCAF , anti army banners for the time being in order not to give anyone a chance.
Insh Allah I will be heading soon to Tahrir square , be sure of following me on Twitter. If you are going to watch it on TV then check the following channels : Al Jazeera English , 25 TV and Tahrir.
Update :

  • Ok today was not a million man protest in Tahrir but there were thousands of protesters not only at Tahrir square but also in Alexandria , Mansoura , Fayoum , Tanta , Port Said , Ismailia , Suez , Port Said and Sharm El Sheikh. I read that there are protests in Bani Sawif , Asuit and Sohag but I still don not have any confirmation. 
  • The biggest protest outside Cairo was in Alexandria. 
  • I went to Tahrir square earlier today  the numbers were more than what I expected. The spirit was extremely high. It brought me the memories of those wonderful Fridays and Tuesdays at Tahrir during those 18 days. There were non activist protesters in this protest which I can't find name for ,these protesters were from the middle and working class. Old women and men came , full families came and participated in the protest despite the hot weather in Cairo. 
  • Today was a very hot weather in Cairo yet amazingly in some sort of divine miracle there was amazing weather at Tahrir square , there were shades of clouds and small drops of rain we do not usual see in this time of the year.
  • I noticed that many protesters did not like any extreme attack against the SCAF or the field marshal Tantawy other than the normal criticism to the slowness. Also many protesters did not like the idea of having a presidential council. Most speakers on stages tried to avoid any extreme attack against the SCAF and insisted that the people and army are one hand. For instance Judge Hisham El-Barody criticized the SCAF and was just starting to speak about why we should have a presidential council when Bothaina Kamel took the mic from him and praised the army and how her experience in the military prosecution was not bad at all. During that time it seems that El Barody spoke with someone at the 6th April stage and that someone told him that there is no talk today about presidential council and that will be against the protest because he took the mic back again and forgot about that presidential council 
  • Judge Zakariah Abdel Aziz suggested having a new independent judicial committee to aid the public prosecutor in combating corruption. 
  • There were banners against admiral Fadel , the CEO of Suez canal accusing him of corruption and wondering where the revenues of the canal did go in reference to the claims that Mubarak used to take part from the canal's revenue.
  • There was a small protest held by Egyptian archeologists against none other than our minister of antiquities Zahi Hawas , accusing of being a thief who should be investigated and sacked off his position. 
  • Almost all the speakers on stage insisted that we would leave at 6 PM and there will be no sit ins in the square. Israa Abdel Fatah went a little bit further and said whoever will have a sit in will be considered a counter revolution element. Honestly I do not know if there are people who have a sit in now or not but almost all the people I know even from activists are against having sit ins in the square tonight. 
  • There were many demands in this protest which you may agree and disagree yet nobody forced others in to his demands. The most important demands I found people agree upon are the prosecution of Mubarak and his regime and combating corruption and the return of police force to the streets. There were other demands like the minimum and maximum limit of wages demand and also the rights of revolution injured. 
  • There were calls for having a constitution now or constitution first before the parliament which is debatable demand yet it was there. 
  • I saw many activists and many faces as well like for instance Dr. Mamdouh Hamza "He had this very short conversation with a former army officer who did not like his accusation to SCAF that it follows Mubarak , he left the conversation though" , filmmaker Yosri Nasrallah , Amr Hamzawy who was like a real rock star , Micheal Mounir , Judge Zakariah Abdel Aziz and Bothaina Kamel 
  • Sharm El Sheikh is still having a protest in front of the Sharm El Sheikh hospital. The protesters are from those who work in the city and harmed from Mubarak's stay in the city and the local tribes for the first time. The tourism sector is hit in the city thanks to Mubarak not because of the revolution but Mubarak. Here is a video showing the protests in the morning. 

7 comments:

  1. How about "Yo! Ikhwan Stop Raping Our Revolution Friday"

    I too hope this day turns out well, remember it only takes one idiot in the crowd for it to go awry. I think the you should be worried about the Ikhwan & Salafist than Mubarak's thugs, they have more to gain if this turns violent . "The infidels are going to destroy the country....blah blah!

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  2. http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/5/27/the-saudi-led-counter-revolution.html

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  3. Can you consider moving to wordpress? this blog is terrible on the eyes so disjointed and so much crap on the right side makes it very slow

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  4. http://www.ahram.org.eg/The-First/News/80418.aspx
    فجاه بعد انمبارح طلعت عجلة الانتاج شغاله و مفيهاش اى حاجه ،اومال ايه الفيلم اللى كانوا مشغيلينو علينا الاقتصاد منهار و البلد حتضيع و كلنا حنتفشخ و نبفى اكلى لحوم البشر يامجلس يا عسكرى ياولاد الكدابه

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  5. Thanks for a good sum up of the situation yesterday. :)

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  6. As always, great reporting!!

    KEEP IT UP!

    If anyone is interested, I've put up some photos from the 27th:

    http://thembalewis.com/the-second-revolution-may-27-2011-in-tah

    ReplyDelete

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