Saturday, January 29, 2011

Egypt: Anti-Government Demonstrations Centering On Mosques, Demonstrators Chanting "Allahu Akbar"

From Jihad Watch:

Egypt: Anti-government demonstrations centering on mosques, demonstrators chanting "Allahu akbar"


And the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take advantage. Note that the CNN reporter here thinks that the demonstrators greeted the troops with "Allahu akbar" because they trust the army more than they trust the police, but it was Mubarak, after all, who called out the army -- as Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch notes. So to assume that anti-Mubarak demonstrators joyfully greeted the army that Mubarak called out against them makes little sense. It is more likely that in this case the "Allahu akbar" chanting is an indication of the Islamic, pro-Sharia, pro-Brotherhood sentiments of the demonstrators, who are fed up with Mubarak's relatively secular Arab nationalism. "Latest Updates on Protests in Egypt," by Robert Mackey in the New York Times, January 28:



CNN has just broadcast video of soldiers on the streets of Cairo. As armored personal carriers arrived outside a state television building, Ben Wedeman of CNN reported that people on the streets shouted "Allahu Akbar" as the troops arrived. Mr. Wedeman suggested that this could be because the nation's army is more trusted than the police. [...]

My colleague Anthony Shadid reports from Beirut:



"It has blown up in Egypt," read the front page of Al Akhbar, an influential leftist daily newspaper in Beirut. "Today all eyes are focused on the mosques in the land of Egypt, where the protests are expected to reach their peak."

My colleagues Nicholas Kulish and Souad Mekhennet report a remarkable end to two hours of clashes in the city of Alexandria:



"It's clear that the very extensive police force in Egypt is no longer able to control these crowds. There are too many protests in too many places. So now the real danger is that Mubarak might call out the army," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, who observed the street battle in Alexandria Friday. [...]

Within the past hour, Jonathan Rugman of Britain's Channel 4 News reported on clashes in Cairo on his Twitter feed:



People running from tear gas in downtown #Cairo old town, riot police reinforcing Freedom Square...

More tear gas in central #Cairo crowd chanting a mix of "change change" and "God is great."...



Posted by Robert on January 28, 2011 7:29 AM

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