Tag: Activism

Around 150 activists assembled on the doorsteps of the Press Syndicate, protesting the continued detention of Youth for Change activists Sharqawi and Sha3er, and hundreds of Muslim Brothers detainees.

The one-hour stand protest began at 6pm, with several released detainees leading the chants. The protestors were mainly rights lawyers and activists from Kefaya, left wing groups, Al-Ghad Party, and few members of the MB.

The demonstrators carried posters of Sharqawi, Sha3er and MB leader Dr. Essam el-Erian.

The syndicate was surrounded since the afternoon by CSF troops, who formed a two row cordon circling the syndicate. At least four CSF trucks were parked in Ramsis St. Two battalions of plainclothes thugs were stationed in their usual places, on the two corners of the syndicate building. Security controlled access to the demo location, but it posed no obstables for those who wanted to get in.

For roughly an hour, demonstrators chanted the usual chants against Mubarak, the govt, police, called for the release of detainees. Later, they started chanting slogans against the Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. At 6:50pm, two Youth for Change activists decided to get out of the CSF ring, and distribute flyers in the street. For no more than two minutes, the two guys kept on throwing the leaflets accross windows of passing cars, before security moved in quickly. Plainclothes and uniformed officers moved quickly, grabbed the two and pushed them back. A brief scuffle happened with other activists pushing CSF concripts trying to get out to join their friends, but it was over when the two activists were returned to the ring.

Ten minutes later, the demo was over, as Rozza’s memorial was about to start…

Here is slideshow of pix by 3amr 3abdallah of today’s demo.

On Friday, Al-Masri Al-Youm reported several thousands took part in protests in solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinians in Al-Azhar Mosque and other provinces outside Cairo.

Here’s a slideshow of pix by Nasser Nouri of Al-Azhar Friday demo. Activists from the Islamist-leaning Labor Party, according to Nasser, led others in chanting in solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese. There were also chants against the Saudi royal family, and Arab regimes.

Activists are calling for a protest in front of the Press Syndicate, Saturday 15 July, 6pm, to demand the release of Sharqawi, Sha3er, and the Muslim Brotherhood detainees, who were picked up during security crackdowns on pro-Judges demos.

A centralized Activism Calendar has been launched on Manalaa and Kefaya‘s website. It’s available only in Arabic at the moment. Get in touch with the administrators of either of the two websites to publicize your demo.

An American prof’s impression of what is happening in Cairo now. Please read:
Darkness on the Edge of Cairo
by John William Salevurakis
Every day I walk from my fashionable neighborhood to the university and pass a pair of very kind, white-uniformed police officers. They stand in their almost blindingly clean attire, only a block from my crumbling apartment building, smoking Egypt’s cheapest Cleopatra cigarettes and directing traffic. “Ya Pasha!” they shout, “Habibi!” This is my daily greeting as I pass and kiss each of them on both cheeks. Since I came here from Utah nearly two years ago, I have been “a ruler” and their “dearest one” nearly every day. I don’t smoke but they commonly offer me a cigarette so I will take the time to uneasily chat in my pidgin Arabic. We talk about mundane things like the summer heat or when I’ll again be visiting America or Europe. In Cairo, the mundane is really of immense value as a symbol. It is a social ritual, it seems, representing calm and a certain degree of material prosperity, a sign that one can afford to be concerned about such things pertaining to one’s self and others. With regularity, however, the calm is now broken on the edges of Cairo, and the darkness, fueled jointly by domestic and foreign powers, is creeping in from the edges of town. Everybody’s got a secret, it seems.
On May 25th, Karim Al-Shaer and Mohammed Al-Sharkawy were arrested at a local protest and taken to the Kasr El Nil police station near my apartment. They were beaten and tortured, and Al-Sharkawy was sexually abused, and then turned over to State Security Forces, at which point their long-term futures became even more uncertain. The two were then allegedly denied medical care and remanded to the Tora Prison for a minimum of 15 days under Egypt’s widely criticized yet strikingly familiar “Emergency Laws” which have been in place, almost without interruption, for the last 38 years. A second protest on June 2nd (Correction: actually it was June 1st) saw the detainment of three Egyptians and an L.A. Times reporter who also had his camera smashed by police in front of the Kasr El Nil station. It was loudly and repeatedly noted by security: “There’s no permit for a protest today for the demonstrators. There is no permit for the coverage by reporters!” Historically, no one has asked any questions when faced with statements such as these . . . but that obedience is starting to evaporate. Continue reading “Obedience is starting to evaporate”