Group items tagged fisk - Media in Middle East & North Africa

Robert Fisk: Secular and devout. Rich and poor. They marched together with one goal - R... - 1 views

www.independent.co.uk/...her-with-one-goal-2201504.html

Egypt protests #jan25 islamophobia US USA opinion analysis fisk

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Feb 11 - No Cached

There were several elements about this unprecedented political event that stood out. First was the secularism of the whole affair. Women in chadors and niqabs and scarves walked happily beside girls with long hair flowing over their shoulders, students next to imams and men with beards that would have made Bin Laden jealous. The poor in torn sandals and the rich in business suits, squeezed into this shouting mass, an amalgam of the real Egypt hitherto divided by class and regime-encouraged envy. They had done the impossible – or so they thought – and, in a way, they had already won their social revolution.
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There I was, back on the intersection behind the Egyptian Museum where only five days ago – it feels like five months – I choked on tear gas as Mubarak's police thugs, the baltigi, the drug addict ex-prisoner cops, were slipped through the lines of state security policemen to beat, bludgeon and smash the heads and faces of the unarmed demonstrators, who eventually threw them all out of Tahrir Square and made it the Egyptian uprising. Back then, we heard no Western support for these brave men and women. Nor did we hear it yesterday.
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They supported democracy. We supported "stability", "moderation", "restraint", "firm" leadership (Saddam Hussein-lite) soft "reform" and obedient Muslims.
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what were the Americans doing? Rumour: US diplomats were on their way to Egypt to negotiate between a future President Suleiman and opposition groups. Rumour: extra Marines were being drafted into Egypt to defend the US embassy from attack. Fact: Obama finally told Mubarak to go. Fact: a further evacuation of US families from the Marriott Hotel in Cairo, escorted by Egyptian troops and cops, heading for the airport, fleeing from a people who could so easily be their friends.
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Robert Fisk: Back to Tahrir Square - Robert Fisk - Commentators - The Independent - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...-to-tahrir-square-6270756.html

egypt revolution protest #jan25

shared by gweyman on 08 Dec 11 - No Cached

gweyman on 08 Dec 11

Wissam Mohamed, a 26-year old translator completing a masters in political science, a scarf over her hair, bright brown eyes, says she's still a revolutionary and believes that the Military Council will not hand over power without further demonstrations by "the people". She mourns the fact that so many of the dead and wounded last month were young and from such poor families. She senses that Mubarak - the farmer Mr Smith of Orwell's 1984 - has not really gone. "Mr Smith never left," she says. "His men are still here. They might well put him back in the palace."

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Wissam Mohamed, a 26-year old translator completing a masters in political science, a scarf over her hair, bright brown eyes, says she's still a revolutionary and believes that the Military Council will not hand over power without further demonstrations by "the people". She mourns the fact that so many of the dead and wounded last month were young and from such poor families. She senses that Mubarak - the farmer Mr Smith of Orwell's 1984 - has not really gone. "Mr Smith never left," she says. "His men are still here. They might well put him back in the palace."</div>

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