Jan. 25 is the date that the revolution began, and hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marked its anniversary this week. But ask anyone who participated in the uprising and they will likely tell you than Jan. 28 was when Egypt changed irrevocably. It was a violent and damaging day, but one full of significant and tangible gains for the revolutionaries.

Today was again dubbed the Friday of Rage, and saw protestors convene in their thousands in Tahrir and outside Maspero after coordinating several marches across Cairo.

I mentioned in my Jan. 25 post that the various motivations of the million or so people in Tahrir had produced tension, and today I saw a continuation – indeed, an escalation – of that.

In the centre of the square, the Muslim Brotherhood had erected a stage. Right next to it was a stage for The Revolution Continues. Both competed for attention through deafeningly loud PA systems, as MB supporters clashed with other revolutionaries. At the time of writing, these were nothing more than sporadic fist-fights that were soon enough broken up by the masses.

Protestors raise their hands to object to the Muslim Brotherhood playing Quranic verses over a PA in Tahrir Square

Whereas Jan. 25 saw a very large turnout for MB supporters, today saw them far outnumbered by partisans of other groups. At one point, the MB stage began blaring out Quranic suras, presumably in an attempt to drown out some the abuse it had received throughout the afternoon. The crowd responded with a hail of jeers and a volley of water bottles and other projectiles.

I spoke with Ahmed, a shopkeeper who had travelled to Cairo from Mansoura. In a view shared by the hundreds of civilians hurling more than just insults at the stage, he was disparaging of the MBs attempts to religionize the protests.

“Religion is for a man and his God. I came here from the mosque, but what place does Islam have in the square?” he asked. “The ikhwan are making a mistake. We all love our religion; it is a vital part of all our lives. But it has no place in government, and no place in politics.”

A man raises his shoe in protest

More generally, there was hostility aimed at the MB in the form of allegations that the party were carrying out the whims of the Scaf  (“Get down, you are one of Tantawi’s dogs” went the chant).

Not even an attempt by once emcee to find common ground (“yaskot yaskot 7okm el 3askar” ["Down with Scaf"]) could silence the critics. The MB has scouts deployed across the square, and they were having a hard time of it today; several exchanged heated words with small groups before hurrying off with tails between legs (not that I endorse the accusation of them being dogs. It’s a figure of speech).

Just as it’s easier to tear a building down that put one up, so the unity of the people of Tahrir is getting harder to piece back together as Egypt’s transition to democracy progresses. Protestors from various groups have vowed to stay in the square and continue their marches across the country. Tomorrow is Jan. 28, a year to the day since the Army stormed anti-Mubarak protests as the NDP building went up in flames. Expect some fireworks.

P.S. On Jan. 25, myself and some colleagues went to the square for Fagr (dawn) prayers, and came across a makeshift prison close to Mugamaa. Austin Mackell blogs about it here.

One of the most frequently stressed aspects of Egypt’s fractious and flawed transition to democracy is that Islamist parties have gained the most from the revolution. With two-thirds of the People’s Assembly vote going their way, governments and commentators from the  Western Hemisphere have been vocal in the need for administrations across the world to support a Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Noor led parliament. We will support the Islamists, the caveat always runs, as long as their power is representative of public opinion. It has been an awkward shift for major players such as the US to undertake, with the realisation that Islamism is not diametrically opposed to democracy. Islamists love democracy in Egypt; they win.

In the run up to the anniversary of Jan. 25, much has been made of the way that Egypt is apt to be governed by an Islamist majority, one that has always, even under oppression, most closely accommodated the needs of civilians, be that through social provision or pastoral guidance. On the other side of the coin, features have ran on how the revolutionaries – a nebulous and troublesome term within itself – feel betrayed due to their demands not being met. Fine, Egypt may have a corollary of democratic executive power, but under Emergency Law and the threat of military trials, it is hardly Sweden.

Poverty and corruption, two pillars railed against during the 18 days, have increased in a year. The economic situation is deteriorating at a frightening rate; Egypt has frittered away more than half of its foreign currency reserve in 12 months and tens of millions of civilians are in danger of falling into extreme poorness.

The success or failure of 2011 depends, as ever, on who you ask. The diverging narratives that have emerged – variously, that Egypt needs to get back on its feet and the MB, in cooperation with the Army and its vast business interests (albeit back in its barracks) are the right people for the job; or, that while Mubarak may have departed, his brutal regimen of repression and nepotism has not – are distant, but not necessarily irreconcilable.

If we are to decide where the weight of public opinion falls – however inexact a science that may be – a good place to start might be yesterday, where more than a million people took to the streets of Cairo to mark the revolution’s anniversary.

The differing commemorative approaches by groups were marked, and more than merely symbolic. The MB erected a huge stage in the middle of the square, and its supporters monopolised a large portion of Tahrir early on in the day. Marches organised by various other factions deliberately started from geographically diverse locations, before making their way to the historic plaza.

For the MB, positioning themselves in the middle of Tahrir was a show of tenure, a consolidation of the gains they had made through due democratic process. For others, the marches across Cairo was a display of diversification, of harnessing disparate support from outside of Tahrir, both to counter the accusation that their popular support is limited to a small faction of tent dwellers and protestors and to perpetuate momentum complementary to their cause.

As tens of thousands of marchers – be they revolutionary or liberal, or espousing any other ideology – crossed Qasr al-Nil bridge, the two groups came together. Chants of “this is a revolution, not a party” erupted from the crowd, directed not only at the SCAF and its declaration that Jan. 25 would be a celebration but also at the MB, who, given their gains in recent months, might well have been in the mood for celebration.

For all the imagery produced by shots of a million or more in Tahrir a year on from the start of the revolution, the positioning and movement of different groups produced yesterday’s sharpest metaphor. The MB got their first – they were organised and have occupied a position of wide public – and electorally corroborated – support. The ‘revolutionaries’ were late to the party, in terms of the democratic process birthed by Mubarak’s ousting, and continue to mobilise to fight for their cause(s).

Of course, there are overlaps. Virtually everyone agrees that the rule of SCAF should end; it is the timing and manner of this where opinions differ. Political parties and the support they enjoy are unanimous that economic stability is paramount for Egypt’s future, but there are several takes on how this might be achieved.

In a way, the fact that yesterday’s turnout was so gigantic was significant enough within itself. It could be argued that people taking to the streets at all is more important than the reasons they had for doing so. But with motivation so entirely various, the tension between those who feel they’ve won the game and those who insist we’re still playing is not going away.

It has been a year since the revolution. 365 days have passed since civilians across Egypt took advantage of a national holiday (Police Day, ironically) to take to the streets with a simple, triple-pronged demand: Bread, Freedom, Social Justice.

I went down to Tahrir Square – the spiritual home of the revolution – twice, once in the morning for Fagr prayers and once as part of a mass march from Mustafa Mahmoud mosque in Mohandaseen, accompanied by (@austingmackell) and (@aliyaalwi). I will post a longer piece soon, but for now, here are some shots of today.

Heading in to the first anniversary of #Jan25, artists in Cairo have called for a “Mad Graffiti Week”. The idea is to intensify the graffiti work that has been daubed in downtown Cairo for the past year, and to spread the images outside of Tahrir. It is partly display of solidarity with protestors who have been killed or wounded in the ongoing unrest, and partly a riposte to the security services for painting over large swathes of stencilling that had appeared in the areas surrounding the square. Mad Graffiti Week is so mad, in fact, that it lasts a whole 10 days.

I went to meet an artist participating in MGW, in Heliopolis, close to Cairo Airport. He is a student at a nearby university, but since the revolution has taken up graffiti. The surrounding area is lit up with stencils of everything from Jim Morrison to lizards. Most are the work of Azooz.

Most of his work is light-hearted; he mainly focusses on music, but his pieces, somewhat unavoidably, have a political frisson. The work above, which he allowed me to film being painted, reads “We need tear gas with flavours,” a reference to the use by security forces on protestors at recent clashes in Tahrir.

Azooz doesn’t class himself in the same league as other artist/activist hybrids, some of whom have received stiff jail sentence for inflammatory or subversive work. He and his flatmate, Mahmoud, operate happily in broad daylight, without so much as look over the shoulder at nearby police officers.

The pair claim they are going to intensify their work over the coming few days, and hope to make it into town proper to graffiti close to Tahrir Square. There are many others like Azooz, and I will try and document some of their works leading up to the anniversary.

Some of Azooz's handiwork. The Arabic reads: "The people need tear gas in flavours"

With just two more Fridays left before Egypt marks the one year anniversary of its Jan 25 revolution, I headed down to Tahrir Square, where supporters of imprisoned army officers were demonstrating, demanding their release. Far more people there than this time last week. I’m still following up on their cases.

Some pics from today:

You’ve probably all heard about Kazeboon, an initiative aimed at getting activism operative outside of Tahrir Square. The organisers display films of army violence against protestors in the past year. Here are some pictures I took at the one held this evening, in Sphinx Square, Mohandaseen.

For more photos go to: http://www.flickr.com/people/patrickgaley/

For more on Kazeboon go to: www.facebook.com/pages/Kazeboon-كاذبون/249589071773470

Former US President Jimmy Carter at voting station in Shubra

Former US President and long-time monitor of elections in fledgling democracies Jimmy Carter is in town for a couple of days to take a look at voting for the People’s Assembly run offs. His group, the Carter Centre, has had 40 election monitors in Egypt since the first round of voting in November.

The Carter Centre organised press access to a voting station today at an all girls school in Shubra. Carter himself looked a little exasperated at the media scrum, even telling one reporter that all he’d been able so see so far were “cameras in my face.”

Carter has an obvious tie with Egypt, given his mediation between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin that led to the signing of the Camp David Accords and the eventual peace treaty between the states.

I asked him about the peace treaty. He responded:

I believe the treaty will be observed no matter who gets elected.

Which is probably true – it at least seems like the majority won by the FJP is unlikely to renege.

Carter will unveil his official findings on the PA elections on Friday.

This morning saw the release of Amnesty International’s MENA Year of Rebellion report, which gave a run down of alleged human rights violations in each country hit by Arab Spring uprisings.

Its take on Egypt doesn’t offer much that was not already known in terms of violence against protestors by security forces. It even praises SCAF’s decision to disband the fearsome SSI, a police security wing renowned for human rights abuses.

What it does do is summarise the contradictory behaviour of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), the de facto rulers of Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, highlighting the apparently paradoxical manner in which the ruling military has taken about the complicated task of running a country in the throes of change.

For example, it points out that while SCAF recognised the existence of non-state labour unions, its Law 34, passed last year, made striking a prosecutable offence. In addition, military rulers acknowledged that inhumane treatment of demonstrators had taken place and promised investigations, yet no probe has produced a result.

Perhaps the most obvious volte-face SCAF performed, according to Amnesty, was to vow to protect the safety of protestors before allowing security forces to storm Tahrir Square and forcibly breakup various sit ins by those wounded during January 25 gatherings. That’s to say nothing of the more than 40 protestors who were killed on the square during November, or the 28 killed during the Maspero massacre.

In Tahrir tonight, a resident of the tent village that’s remained in the square in various guises for almost a year said he agreed with the assessment that SCAF has failed its role as ruling group. As a military organisation, it seems unable deal with the minutiae of legislative and executive government. He vowed he and his neighbours would stay in the square until all the goals of the revolution had been achieved, and that included a fully civilian, democratically elected government.

A neighbour, who has camped out for months in solidarity with those killed by security forces, showed me pictures he had taken of police attacking protestors, and pointed to the balconies in high rise blocks on the square’s perimeter where snipers had targeted civilians beneath them.

Amnesty that 2012 will see a continuation of human rights abuses in countries where tyrants were toppled in 2011. The residents of Tahrir Square believe that’s a price worth paying to see the revolution through to the end.

A woman protests against armed thugs, a group of which wounded her eye and leg during a recent Tahrir protest (Photo: Austin Gerassimos Mackell)

Readers and twitter followers of mine with a keen eye may have picked up on the fact that I have moved to Cairo, and today I headed to Tahrir Square the focal point of Egypt’s January 25 revolution, that saw former President Hosni Mubarak toppled after 18 unprecedented days of protest and violence.

I’ll spare the cliched ‘first impressions,’ because you all know by now what the place looks like and what the people who gather there varyingly stand for.

I met a young man who made and designed banners and signs for a living. He was present during the initial unrest last year and makes his way down to the square every Friday after prayers. His piece de resistance for foreigners is a gleefully unveiled scar, running for three inches down his navel, which he claims was the result of a knife attack by the baltagiya - gangs of state-paid thugs – during the protests.

I also encountered relatives of army members who had either deserted or refused to use violence against demonstrators and have since been imprisoned. The trials of three high-profile army members is due to take place next week, and I shall be following up on how it goes. Stay tuned.

Tagged: baltagiya, Egypt, Jan25, SCAF, Tahrir ]]> http://patrickgaley.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/first-time-in-tahrir/feed/ 0 patrickgaley A woman protests against armed thugs, a group of which wounded her eye and leg during a recent Tahrir protest (Photo: Austin Gerassimos Mackell) http://patrickgaley.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/another-reason-why-religion-and-politics-shouldnt-mix/ http://patrickgaley.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/another-reason-why-religion-and-politics-shouldnt-mix/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:39:16 +0000 patrickgaley http://patrickgaley.wordpress.com/?p=736 ]]>  

Copyright Reuters

It is remarkable how Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, Beschara Rai, can deliver sermons and addresses so adroitly with his foot stuck in his mouth.

First, he defended Syrian President Bashar Assad by arguing (not unlike senior March 8 Christian figures) that the fall of the regime would automatically imperil Christians living there. Aside from being rather a large diplomatic boo-boo, Rai’s rhetoric was roughly analogous to that of the late Muammar Gadhafi, who warned that Al-Qaeda and rats and drugged up Salafists would replace his tyrannous tenure. It is fear-mongering at its least convincing and it places the head of the Maronite Church in direct opposition to most of the Arab world and most of the international community.

Now Rai has decided that, because one man last week raped and killed an innocent women at a sanctuary, and because that man happened to be neither Lebanese nor a Christian, that all foreign non-Christians cannot be trusted as employees in Christian institutions.

Well then. The crime was horrifying and must obviously be utterly condemned, but I’m not sure it happened because the perpetrator was a foreign non-Christian. It happened because he’s a murdering rapist. See the difference?

Rai obviously feels like he has to say something, but his timing and slant are both plain wrong. Given the sectarian makeup of the country, its less-than friendly history, and the faith-related tensions currently surrounding it, Lebanon does not need a senior religious figure blaming inhuman behaviour on foreignness or non-Christianness.

Through Rai’s intervention, a personal tragedy has been flung headlong into the political arena. With the government on the brink of collapse, I would venture it’s the role of religious figures to preach togetherness and unity, not xenophobia and sectarianism.