Friday, April 20, 2012

#April20 in Tahrir : Live

At Tahrir square this morning 
It was only 10:30 AM and the Tahrir was nearly packed thanks to the huge mobilization again of Muslim brotherhood to their members from all over the country to Tahrir square. The Salafist presence is bigger than last time as Salafists are angry for excluding Hazem Abu Ismail from presidential race. Both Salafists and MB are securing the square. You can see the buses that transferred the MB Members to Tahrir square outside it.
There are hundreds of thousands already in the square according to my estimation before the Friday prayer. The MB members came with their full families again. Despite the hopes that there will be one flag today , there are lots of Islamist flags whether black and white. The MB and freedom and justice party banners are not hided
There are anti-SCAF chants and anti-felol chants as well. there are banners against the candidacy of Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafik as well SCAF
The ministry of health sent many ambulances Just in case. street vendors are having their best time selling cold beverages and hot meals starting with beans and ended with liver !! The Abu Ismail stuff from caps, t-shirts
There are 8 stages I spotted so far :
The Taxation Youth stage 
  1. The MB which is the biggest at KFC
  2. The April 6 youth stage "I think Democratic front"
  3. Two for Salafists including one for Hazem Abu Ismail campaign "both actually are mad about him"
  4. Two unknown stages which I will check from
  5. The justice and freedom youth stage "unrelated to MB"
  6. The youth of taxation authority. "Exposes the corruption in the authority where the wife of Samy Anan , the chief of Staff and member of SCAF works" 
It is extremely hot. It is midday and already got four flyers , one from taxation authority youth about the corruption within the authority , one from the officers with a beard guys ,one from the central audit organization and the last one is from Hazem Abu Ismail boys regarding his case.
Wait for more updates.

@8:46 PM 

Ok I am sorry that I did not update the post all that time , I think I kept my twitter account updated as much as possible.


Friday prayer at Tahrir square 
Now after leaving this post published @12:17 PM I attended the Friday prayer at the Revolutionary stage which is called "We will continue". The Friday speech and prayer were led by Sheikh Mazher Shahin , the Pro-Revolutionary Emam of Omar Makram and TV host. 
The Revolutionary stage hosted the Pro-Revolution prominent figures Tahrir people know very well like Dr. Karima Hafiny and Nader El Siyad . Former MB leading figure Kamel El Helbaway who slammed the MB just few steps away from its big stage. 
MP Mahmoud El Khodiary was among the speakers on the stage. El Khodairy who heads the legislative committee in the People's assembly said that the true legislative power comes from the square and not from the parliament. I wonder if the MPs will dare to ask him about this quote. 
The stage hosted Ramy Essam who sang Ultras songs later after I had to leave unfortunately. 
I was stuck among men while they were praying , I was embarrassed.
There was also another stage set up by the Al Amal party , so we are speaking about 10 stages !!!
Of course the most interesting you must know that the speakers of Abu Ismail stage were too loud that they covered what revolutionary stage was saying. Of course Abu Ismail stage or rather two stages violated what was agreed  that there will be no controversial slogans but what you know !! The slogans , flags and banners these guys chanted and held were Pro-Islamist and Pro-Hazem Abu Ismail with black Islamist flags and Hazem's posters all over the place in a sick way. "The people want Sharia" , 'The people want Hazem Abu Ismail as a president" , "Do you want it to be American state or Islamist state !!" were quick example on what was being said in the protest that everybody agreed that it was dominated by Islamists inside the square. 
Later I knew that the April 6th Youth Stage joined the revolutionary stage. 
I am sorry there is another stage by National association of change , so they were 11 stages !!!!!!!
The MB stage was attacking SCAF , promoting for Mohamed Morsi as the president and holding wedding !!!! 
There were street vendors as usual who found a golden opportunity to sell their street food , beverage and Abu Ismal and MB's T-shirts and caps. 
Now in my way out I saw the marches coming and they gave a lot of hope , a real hope. 
The marches were not Islamist dominated on the contrary , you got this mix of all political powers that still believe in the true revolutionary spirit of the 18 days. April 6th Youth headed some of these marches that came from Shubra and Mostafa Mahmoud , the Revolutionary socialists and Muslim brotherhood participated in these marches as well. The Ultras boys came and cheered up the square. 
One of the marches went to Maspero aka the Egyptian National TV building to condemn its bias against Islamists. 
Of course the day ended by a sad thing , some protesters attacked the buses transferring the MB and their families near Ramsis Hilton hotel and some of these protesters actually bragged about it online. Among these protesters a tweep who confessed that he and his companions are enjoying how they gave the MB hard lesson. The lesson was received indeed and they can ask the terrified MB's women and children. The Salafists from Abu Ismail supporters have started a sit in at Tahrir square in order that the man returns back to the presidential race !! 
I do not think that we are going to reach for something for real when it comes to this protest.
Here are photos from the protest which I am currently uploading

10 comments:

  1. OMFG people, check out this video with English subtitles supplied by MEMRI. One of the funniest things you have ever seen, I guarantee. Description: Gamal Saber, Campaign Manager for Disqualified Egyptian Presidential Candidate Hazem Abu Ismail, Accuses TV Hosts of Being Jewish in Order to Make a Point. Al-Mihwar TV (Egypt), Sada Al-Balad (Egypt). http://youtu.be/MivM-9qWeS0. ROTFLMAO

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  2. Jason, I wish I could find it funny. So now it is an insult to call someone a Jew in Egypt....

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  3. @Expat, it's sad, but it's been that way a long time in Egypt and the Arab world. When political factions attack each other it is common to see them carrying pictures of each other's leaders with 6-pointed stars drawn on them: Picture by Zeinobia. The political spectrum ranges from openly anti-Jewish like the Salafists, to, at the opposite extreme, merely anti-Israel like Zeinobia. Even educated democratic secular liberals too enlightened to use "Jew" as an insult understand perfectly well that they are being insulted when they are called Jewish. In a blog post yesterday Caroline Glick wrote Hatred of Jews is the central animating feature of the political and strategic reality of the Middle East. I'm not an expert, can't read Arabic, and I've never been to the Middle East but it looks that way to me.

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  4. This is a result of zionism and zionists using the word Jew in every conversation even though zionisms founder was athiest.
    Because of anti semitism the punctuate every sense with the word Jew. Just check any pro zionist forum and see what they do. They themselves have created this anti Jewish feeling.
    We cannot escape the fact that creation of Israel was the biggest catastrophe in recent times. A major mistake.
    They are now the new nazis and carrying out the same ethnic policy of cleansing the goyim because they the Israelis are special/chosen as they say.
    Their government pays them to post on forums (see Haaretz ) and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LofScCiJT4c http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-recruits-army-of-bloggers-to-combat-anti-zionist-web-sites-1.268393 see how they mock the prophet Jesus on their Tel Aviv TV screens !!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA6vRC1xW_c&NR=1&feature=endscreen this is their entertainment!!!! so dont be surprised when the Arab world hates Israel and their people be they Jews or athiest or zionist.

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    Replies
    1. > "We cannot escape the fact that creation of Israel was the biggest catastrophe in recent times. A major mistake."

      Not WWII? Not the gendocies in Africa? Not the Tsunami's in South East Asia? All is unimportant compared to your hate to Israel/Jews?

      On one hand you say that the early Zionist were atheaist (which is true), or the other hand you say they "cleanse the goyim because they the Israelis are special/chosen as they say", which is a complete religous terminology and way of thinking, so what are they? religious or atheist?

      I think your main source of data about Israel is anti-semitic web sites that provide blatant lies and out-of-context data to defame Israel. If I learnt one thing from this blog is that each country is unique and has different interests, population, opinions and ideas. A simplistic black and white approach brings just hate and war.

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  5. Given what Jews are doing to Arabs all the time one cannot expect that being called a Jew is considered a compliment.

    Caroline is right, hatred of Jews is the central animating feature, however, she is wrong to call that hatred abhorrence for Israel and the Jewish people "irrational".

    There is a very rational cause behind this hatred and that is 4 million Palestinians kept like in the USA native Indians in reservations, who are exposed to systematic and indiscriminate violence and oppression by IDF soldiers.

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  6. When it comes to politics, it always gets nasty. It does not matter where in the world.

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  7. Gamal Saber violates all that Islam teaches, he insights hate, racism and fanaticism. Labeling Judaism as evil is racist and Jews should not be prosecuted because some of them have ultra racist views and expansionist beliefs.
    Both religions teach tolerance and promote good values and positive ethics, unfortunately throughout history religion has been used for the wrong reasons and ignorant people fall for it time and time again.

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  8. Thank you, Anonymous. Here are your links enabled for convenience:

    1. Israel is paying internet workers to manipulate online content

    But as far as I can tell from the video, those people are not being paid, contrary to the title.

    2. Mocking Jesus on Israeli TV - צליבת ישו - The Crucifixion of "Yeshu"

    This one is interesting. There is some criticism of it on FireDogLake which I think is a feminist and left-wing site. I don't understand why a hottie in a bikini is the announcer for a kid's show. But in any case, the ridicule of Christ is less of a big deal to Christians than the ridicule of Mohamed is to Muslims, and this is unlikely to outrage many in the West. Even the US government supports works like Piss Christ. Nobody cares.

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  9. Zeinobia: you are mentioned here:
    http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/20/tahrir_splinters

    Just thought you'd like to know.

    VB

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