@owsar#OWS in Arabic
Arab Spring II: Electric Boogaloo!
It’s estimated some 50,000 Islamic protesters descended upon Cairo’s Tahrir Square to press Egypt’s military ruling party to transfer power to elected civilians.
Cabinet officials have launched an effort to exempt Egypt’s army from parliamentary oversight, prompting the outpouring of protesters to voice their concerns on Friday, Reuters reports.
The protesters chanted Islamic songs, as well as the slogans “Down to military rule” and “No to making the army a state above the state,” before Friday prayers. The military has claimed they would transfer power to elected civilians in 2012 but did not provide a firm date. Many in the crowd were pushing for the military to set a date for elections no later than April 2012.
Eat your heart out, Occupy Wall Street — just look at this massive turnout.
The Muslim Brotherhood says the document floated by the Cabinet reinforces a “dictatorship,” which gives the military final word on major governmental policies. They have promised “an escalation” if it is not shelved, Al Jazeera notes. Aside from the Muslim Brotherhood, Friday’s rally had the participation of liberals, other Islamist parties, and pro-democracy movements responsible for January’s uprising.
the two main demands of the protesters were to prevent the imposition of the government’s document, and to set a date for the presidential elections.
“People are saying there has been no referendum on this document, and are asking why it is being imposed before the upcoming elections,” she said. “They see this as the military trying to impose their rule.”
“They are telling the military to stop trying to unilaterally control this transition period,” she said.
According to our correspondent, several tents are currently being installed in Tahrir Square: “There are calls by certain parties for a sit-in until the document is withdrawn by the government,” she said. “Tents are being set up, but it is unclear if this is going to be a big movement. There is however, a big momentum behind the protest.”
Elsewhere, a similar protest movement formed in Alexandria, Reuters noted.
In the port city of Alexandria, thousands of Islamists and youth groups also held a rally and planned to head to a military base in a show of protest against the army.
“We went down to demand change but they removed Mubarak and brought the Field Marshal,” protesters in Alexandria chanted, referring to Mubarak’s former defense minister who now heads the military council that is supposed to guide Egypt to democracy.
Thousands also gathered in the Northern Sinai and Upper Egypt regions to protest but they called for an Islamic state, not a civilian state, the demand of protesters in the capital and Alexandria.
Looks like protesters are getting serious once again in Egypt. Given the way things unfolded back in January, if you were the military, would you really want to test the will and might of the Egyptian citizenry?
