Egypt's 25th of January Revolution

[egypt69]

Inspired by Tunisia, numerous groups have arranged for this protest in Egypt scheduled for the 25th of January, and they picked this date for a reason. The 25th of January is a National Holiday, “Police Day”.

Also, during the past week, 9 Egyptians have set themselves on fire, with one dying from his injuries.

Now people are dubbing the 25th of January as a "Revolution".

It is getting very serious now, and will be a show to watch.

Here is the facebook event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115372325200575

As of now on the event, 84,441 are attending, 29,707 may be attending, and 955,127 are awaiting reply. These numbers are growing rapidly, literally dozens are joining every minute. I just refreshed it after 1 min, and 50 more people had joined. . And that’s only the Facebook numbers, I can’t imagine how many Non-Facebook users will participate.

Great article from NewsWeek, to understand what's going on:

Is Egypt Next?

Tunisia’s uprising last week invigorated frustrated activists around the region. A upcoming protest in Cairo could mark the beginning of another upheaval.

Khaled Said, a small businessman in the historic Egyptian city of Alexandria, was dragged from an Internet café by police and beaten to death in the street last summer. Said wasn’t known as a political type. But according to human-rights groups, the attack was retaliation for the decision to post a video of cops divvying up drugs from a bust on his personal blog.

The murder clearly struck a nerve. Egyptian activists have waged a longstanding campaign against police brutality and torture, mostly outside the mainstream, and many were surprised by how quickly the news spread among regular folk. “The thing is, he wasn’t really a threat,” says Sherif Mansour, a senior program officer who focuses on new media in Egypt for Freedom House, a watchdog group. “His death made the connection between advocacy and the everyday life of Egyptians. It made the point that everyone can be affected.”

Shortly after the murder, a Facebook page appeared under the name “We Are All Khaled Said.” Run by an obsessively anonymous administrator, it started with posts about Said’s case. But the page quickly spiraled into an all-out campaign against police brutality and rights abuses in Egypt—becoming a clearinghouse for information, posting often-graphic photo and video, and publishing the names of allegedly abusive cops. Mansour credits the page with turning police brutality into a popular debate. The group has organized demonstrations in honor of Said, and today its membership is approaching 380,000, which makes it the country’s largest and most active online human-rights activist group.

Now the group has set its sights on a much bigger cause—taking on authoritarian rule in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak has been in power nearly 30 years.

After protesters in Tunisia ousted their country’s autocratic president, “We Are All Khaled Said” shifted gears to an aggressive political tone. Within days, the page began sounding the call for a large-scale demonstration in Cairo on Tuesday, Jan. 25, with demands ranging from ending police brutality and raising the minimum wage to $180 a month to dissolving Parliament.

The page’s administrator, who insisted on speaking via Gmail chat and asked to be cited as “ElShaheeed,” tells NEWSWEEK that events in Tunisia have made people in Egypt take note. “It just provided all of us with hope that things can change,” he says.

As of Friday morning, nearly 69,000 people had signed up for the Jan. 25 protest on the “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook page.

Traditional opposition groups have also started to join the call for protest on Tuesday. Mohamed ElBaradei, a key opposition figure who had warned of a “Tunisia-style explosion” in Egypt, stopped just short of backing the demonstration. On Thursday night, he finally offered tacit support, if only via Twitter: “Fully support call 4 peaceful demonstrations vs. repression,” he tweeted.

And so clues to how Tunisia’s revolution will affect the region’s other autocratic regimes might be found in Cairo in the coming week, especially since cyberactivists and traditional ones alike seem to be joining forces. Tuesday will be the first real test of whether the revolution is contagious.

Opposition to Mubarak has been brewing for some time, but only disjointedly. Protests have come and gone, and plans for large-scale demonstrations often fizzle. The Egyptian police state, meanwhile, can be brutally effective at crushing dissent. And in the aftermath of Tunisia, the government is paying close attention; it has unleashed a wave of positive propaganda and released political prisoners.

But following November’s especially contentious parliamentary elections—where the ruling party won an improbable 97 percent of the seats amid accusations of massive vote-rigging—the forces for change had already been agitating, notes Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who left for Cairo last week. A smaller rally against police brutality had already been in the works for Jan. 25, a national holiday in honor of police. But the events in Tunisia could give these forces a substantial push. “Tunisia is not causing these things. But it’s certainly adding momentum to the pretty significant opposition that already exists,” Cook says.

Ahmed Salah, a veteran activist in Cairo, points out that the Tunisia revolution happened spontaneously, prompted by the self-immolation of an unemployed university graduate—not at the direction of a political movement or concerted protest push. Yet Salah says the recent spate of copycats across Egypt (there have been nine so far this week) show that agitation is in the air—and, crucially, they’ve been regular Egyptians, not activist types.
Activists are trying to capitalize by bringing news of the protest to regular Egyptians however they can, from passing out fliers on the street to word-of-mouth and text messages. Social media have been another tool—and a crucial one—both in coordinating among activists and in spreading the word, particularly since Egyptian media are so tightly controlled. “I don’t know how we could do without it under the current circumstances,” Salah says. “Before, it was so much more difficult to reach out.”

Despite all the buzz building up to the Jan. 25 protest, however, ElShaheeed is well aware of the difficulties in translating Internet clicks to support on the ground. To that end, he has been using the page to urge people to organize by traditional means as well, even posting links to fliers to be downloaded and distributed—last week activists distributed leaflets to people coming out of Friday prayers. But he says only Tuesday will tell whether these efforts have been enough.

“We’re hoping a lot of people turn up, and that people in the street see us, connect with our demands, and join us,” he says. And if the effort fails, “I’d learn from the lesson, move forward, and do something else.”

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/22/t...to-egypt.html#




Now the event has some pretty interesting, and very strong pictures, check it out:








"Our time is the 25th of January"






"Egypt's Revolution, the 25th of January"



"25th of January, the day of change"


"25th of January, the people's revolution"



Various messages saying: "Revolution, Freedom for Egypt etc"









Now this is one of the most interesting one's IMO, its allegedly a message from an Army officer, with message on his Uniform. The message reads "Your time is near Egypt, 25th of January is our date"




These pictures are spreading like wildfire, and are starting to appear as display pictures for all Egyptian users on Facebook, Twitter and the Blog sphere.


A blogpost from the famous Egyptian Chronicles blog:

24 hours before the 25th !!

It is 24 hours before January 25th and there is a lot of anticipation online and offline on what is going on that day.

First of all I am not sure whether officially the Muslim brotherhood is going to participate in the protest or not because there is talk that the brotherhood are allowed to participate individually !!?

Second it seems that surprisingly the Wafd party is going to participate in the protest or at least the youth of the Wafd party.

Now there is something I fear , the government is asking the shops to close on January 25 because of the riots that will place , this photo was taken by Ramy Raoof and I assume in Mohendessin as it is in English.



I fear that the government wants the protest turns in to riots to justify the use of violence against the protesters. The NDP promised already to launch a counter protest , a pro-Mubarak protest where it will distribute thousands of pro-Mubarak shirts !!!!!!!!!! I do not have any doubt that the NDP supporters will be rented thugs.


Now more public personalities declare that they are going to participate in the day like author Alaa Al-Aswany , Balal Fadel , actor Khaled Abu Naga and actor Amr Waked who wrote a Facebook note to encourage the youth to protest on that day.

There is not unconfirmed news that the Egyptian Ultras of Al Ahly and Zamalak are going to participate in the protest, of course this will be a major development considering their number.

The Khaled Said group has published “What you need to know about the 25th” document in Arabic answering the questions of what , when , why , how …etc. Famous Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff cartoonist made a collection of cartoons in solidarity with Egyptians and the #Jan25.





Newsweek wondered if the #Jan25 will make Egypt follow Tunisia

The wonderful Egyptian community in New York held a protest yesterday in front of the UN despite the cold weather , they will hold another one tomorrow insh Allah. Here is a photo album from Mona Eltahawy.





[IMG]Egyptians abroad are feeling for us as expected here photos from Texas, from Paris , from Italy , from Canada.[/IMG]















Our Arab brothers in Tunisia are sending solidarity messages just like the rest of our Arab brothers who wish to see Egypt liberated from dictatorship.
More updates to come.

Photo source : We are all Khaled Said, Ramy Raoof and Mona El-Tahawy

Link to blog post: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.c...fore-25th.html

Follow the blog for more updates: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/



Very good article, must read:

Egypt's frustrated young wait for their lives to begin, and dream of revolution

In Cairo, as in places all over the country, all eyes are fixed on the drama that is unfolding in Tunisia. Jack Shenker travelled across Egypt and heard people increasingly asking: could it happen here, and if so, when?



News of the latest act of self-immolation in Egypt reached Waleed Shamad while he was sitting in the bourse, a dense warren of outdoor shisha cafes tucked away in the back alleys surrounding Cairo's old stock exchange.

An unemployed man had set himself alight in the middle of a busy street – the 12th such incident last week. According to a TV newsreader, the man, 35, had moved to the capital in the hope of finding work and saving enough to buy a home and get married, but lack of job opportunities had driven him to despair. "That could be a description of any of us," said Waleed, pulling his scarf tighter against the cold. "These human blazes are coming so fast, it's hard to keep track."

Cairo is a city built for sunny days and balmy nights; come winter the wind can lash with a ferocious bite. But that has not stopped Shamad and his friends gathering for their late-evening tea on the pavement to talk through the day's gossip: the Friday sermons devoted to Islam's disapproval of suicide, new government restrictions on buying bottled petrol, and, of course, all the latest from Tunis – where developments have kept the group glued to al-Jazeera TV for days.

"We couldn't believe our eyes," grinned Shamad, recalling the sight of Tunisia's ousted despot, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fleeing a land he had ruled for 23 years. "I'm so proud of the Tunisian people. When you see a friend or brother succeeding in some great struggle, it gives you hope, hope for yourself and hope for your country."

In common with two-thirds of Egypt's population, Shamad has lived his entire life under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, a key western ally whose three-decade grip over one of the most pivotal states in the Arab world has looked marginally more shaky following the events in Tunisia.

At 27, Shamad – university-educated, getting by on scraps of informal work and still living at home with his parents – is part of a demographic bulge that accounts for 90% of the country's unemployed, and whose simmering frustration, according to some analysts, could tip Egypt towards its own intifada – and unknown consequences for the rest of the Middle East. "Not having a regular job affects every aspect of your life practically and psychologically; almost everybody I know of my age is still unmarried and dependent on their families – it makes you feel hopeless," he said.

Last year's UN human development report for Egypt said many of the nation's young people were trapped in "waithood", defined as a prolonged period "during which they simply wait for their lives to begin". "It's not as if we want to sit here passively and accept the situation," Shamad said. "But the instinct of our generation is to avoid the state, not confront it. I know that there are big demonstrations planned for next Tuesday, but we're taught from birth to be fearful of the police. They know how to hurt you, and hurt the ones you love."

Tuesday's demonstrations will take the form of a nationwide set of anti-Mubarak protests, dubbed "revolution day" by opposition activists who hope that Tunisia's uprising will embolden the vast number of individuals like Shamad and persuade them that the time is right to make their voices heard.

"In every neighbourhood in the country there is a pressure point which the government is afraid of and which will be brought to the surface on Tuesday," said Ahmed al-Gheity, 23, a doctor and one of the regional organisers of "revolution day". On the event's Facebook page, tens of thousands of supporters have posted comments suggesting Ben Ali's departure could be the precursor for Mubarak's downfall. "If Tunisia can do it, why can't we?" read one. "We will either start living or start dying on 25 January."

Weary of the formal political arena, where even superficial opposition parties now find themselves blocked off from legitimate avenues of dissent (last November's blatantly rigged parliamentary ballot delivered a 93% majority to supporters of the ruling NDP), urban young Egyptians are instead carving out their own spaces in which alternative voices can be heard. If all 75,000 of those who have made an online promise to attend turn up on Tuesday, it will represent an organisational triumph. But such an outcome appears unlikely.

"At the informal level – blogs, social media – there's been an explosion of political activity, entirely disconnected from the official mechanisms of government," said Amr Hamzawy, research director at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. Yet this dynamism has largely failed to spill on to the street, where Mubarak's ubiquitous security apparatus still maintains near-total control. The only sector of society that has succeeded in physically occupying areas controlled by the state is Egypt's beleaguered workforce, which has confronted the regime over a range of economic grievances and succeeded in extracting concessions.

"This is where the regime is most fearful," said Gamila Ismail, a dissident politician who unsuccessfully challenged the NDP in the recent elections. "They don't want the young, online activists with their political demands linking up and inspiring the labour force who are campaigning for a better standard of living. If youth in Cairo and Alexandria are connecting with Mahalla, then the government knows it is in trouble."

Sixty miles north of the capital, the textile town of El Mahalla el-Kubra has been the militant spearhead of an unprecedented wave of strikes and sit-ins sweeping Egypt over the last five years. In April 2008 a walkout by factory workers led to three people being shot dead by police.

The road to Mahalla passes through Cairo's urban hinterlands, which bleed messily into the Nile delta and surrounding desert – here the high walls of fast-proliferating gated communities for the rich look down on the redbrick clusters of ashwa'iyat, informal slum areas that are now home to 60% of the city's population. This is a clear window on to the hallmark of Mubarak's reign – a colossal appropriation of land and capital by the political and business elite.

Young residents of the private compounds live in a parallel universe from their slum counterparts, but both share a basic detachment from campaigns for political change of the sort planned for Tuesday. "Of course, we are all excited about Tunisia; the people there threw off their shackles and I pray we could do the same," said Mahmoud Abdel Halim, 29, a construction worker. "But I don't see how we could repeat Tunisia here. I haven't heard about any protests, and even if I had it's not like I can afford to stop work and go and get arrested."

Off Mahalla's main square, however, the picture was different. Last Friday a group of young people from across the delta was carefully preparing a series of Tunisian flags, pinning each to a short wooden pole. Others sketched out placards expressing Egypt's solidarity with Tunisia and condemning government corruption, police torture and poverty. When about 50 of them took to the streets in the late afternoon, handing out pamphlets advertising the protests on Tuesday, they were met with a bemused but generally positive response.

"I've never been on anything like this before, although my brother's friend was attacked by police back in April 2008," said one 26-year-old motorcyclist. "Circumstances have got pretty bad now, and I think changing the big sharks at the top is probably the only way we can make things better. I'll try and make it."

Back in their fifth-floor offices afterwards, the activists whooped and high-fived each other. "Yes, it was very small, but it showed that other young people are receptive to our energy," beamed Yasmeen Hamdy El-Fakharany. "I think 25 January will be a great success."

Not everyone agrees. Another 70 miles north-west, in a wood-panelled Alexandrian coffee shop facing the Mediterranean, Hossam al-Wakeel shook his head angrily at the suggestion that his own organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, was betraying the anti-Mubarak movement by refusing to participate in Tuesday's "revolution day".

"Will those coming out on Tuesday bring down the regime? I think not," said al-Wakeel, 23, a journalist. "The Muslim Brotherhood believes that change must come from below, that we must rebuild society layer by layer as part of a gradual process, not chase revolution and impose new leaders from the top." Earnest, cardigan-clad and sporting a trim black beard, Wakeel explained why he had thrown in his lot with the only opposition movement that has the capacity to bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets – and yet persistently refuses to do so.

His vision of change in Egypt is far removed from that of the Tunisian-flag-waving activists in Mahalla. Yet both share a commitment to direct confrontation with the Mubarak regime, something which Cairo's Shamad – despite his deep anger – still considers too risky. Young inhabitants of the ashwa'iyat and their gated neighbours also feel severed from any process of political reform, although, if a spark were to set off a mass mobilisation in the streets, there can be little doubt many would quickly join in.

It seems doubtful that protests on Tuesday will provide that spark, although anything could transpire on the day. But when the spark does come, there can be no doubt the country's angry youth will be leading the way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ubarak-protest



I want to give advice to everyone, the best place to follow this will not be on TV, but on Social Networks.

On Twitter:

Search for posts with this hash tag: #Jan25

And here are activists who will be tweeting info, Pics and Videos, live from the street, I strongly recommend you follow them:

http://twitter.com/#!/Gsquare86

http://twitter.com/#!/Zeinobia

http://twitter.com/#!/monaeltahawy

[xAbd0o]

Two or one day(s) to go guys any final thoughts?

[egypt69]

I'm not expecting much to be honest, yes this will be a massive, massive protest, one of the biggest ever. Yes, there will be violence. But we can't expect a revolution like Tunisia, you just can't plan those things on a certain date.

There needs to be a sudden spark to start a revolution, and right now, the regime is just going to let people vent out their anger. But whenever that spark comes, there's nothing stopping a revolution from happening in Egypt, like it did in Tunisia.

[Ramy H]

You are right, it is usually random assembly.. But I think if people protest hard enough, long enough, camp out and what not and really shut down egypt essentially then its beginnings won't matter - change should ensue regardless because the same pressure is there

[Alrayyan]

25th is the day then , i don't know why but I am reeeeeeeeeeeeally excited, I will be contacting every Egyptian I know to see if their is something happening at the Egyptian embassy in Doha on that day.

[xAbd0o]

cool let us know, I know that will be protests at the canadian and Tunisian embassy.

[AbouKhaleel]

There will be one in Toronto for those of you who live there.

[egypt69]

I was willing to make the 2 hour trip to attend, but then I have an exam the next day

[Montrealers]

Not sure something will happen idk why. You can't plan a revolution. I don't know how to explain, you can't date a revolution. I think the result will be dissapointing to all egyptians.

[xAbd0o]

excuses

[Montrealers]

Originally Posted by xAbd0o

excuses

But lets see what will happen, today MHM was throwing rocks on egyptians for what happened in the alexandrian church bombing. I admired him today.

[xAbd0o]

I was referring to egypt69 about he can't go to toronto I'm just kidding with him

[Montrealers]

[egypt69]

Aren't we already discussing this here:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...298345&page=10

[UAE_isthebest]

Pre-demo in New York City!

[MASRI]

Originally Posted by Montrealers

But lets see what will happen, today MHM was throwing rocks on egyptians for what happened in the alexandrian church bombing. I admired him today.

Admired?

Are you being sarcastic walla serious. Ew3a tetla3 serious.

[MASRI]

This DISGUSTS me in every possible way.

Church Calls on Copts to Boycott Day of Rage

The Coptic Orthodox Church has called on all Copts to abstain from taking part in the scheduled protest on January 25, alleging that the Day of Rage is initiated by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi movements.

Father Abdel Massih called on the Copts to boycott the protest and to remain in their homes, adding that they should fast and pray for Egypt's safety, claiming that the MB and the Salafist member's planned protests will result in chaos, looting, rampages and riots, describing the demonstration as politically motivated.

In a statement, the Father called for reform in all economic matters and hoped solutions would be found.
In all reality the Muslim Brotherhood to date has not announced its stance concerning the planned demonstrations where a statement was issued by the group's media spokesman Dr. Essam el-Erian who asserted the group was still to announce its decision.

A bunch of nonesense. The Church should keep out of politics! Aren't they the same people calling for "equal rights"?? Isn't this what the protests are all about? EGYPTIAN Rights? Or is it solely "Copts" rights that they violently protest for??? They are Egyptian, and should take part. I know many Copts who will, and I hope the vast majority ignore this nonesense propaganda.

[Montrealers]

Originally Posted by MASRI

Admired?

Are you being sarcastic walla serious. Ew3a tetla3 serious.

Why shouldn't i?

He said during his conference that either Muslims or Christians have nothing to say. As for the famous woman who called the government of USA to help the copts in Egypt for security negligence by Egyptian autorities then she should shut it. As for the radical muslims and people rejecting the help toward Copts, they need to shut it, we are a national unity cooperating with eachothers.

I never said i like MHM... But i said that i liked his speech yesterday. W law mo2akhza ya3ni... If something that you hate in my words, just say it because i don't know what i said earlier that shocked you...

[Montrealers]

Originally Posted by MASRI

This DISGUSTS me in every possible way.

Church Calls on Copts to Boycott Day of Rage




A bunch of nonesense. The Church should keep out of politics! Aren't they the same people calling for "equal rights"?? Isn't this what the protests are all about? EGYPTIAN Rights? Or is it solely "Copts" rights that they violently protest for??? They are Egyptian, and should take part. I know many Copts who will, and I hope the vast majority ignore this nonesense propaganda.

.... In reality the church don't care what will happen in 25 but to show to the gvt that they're loyal to the President, they must boycott the 25 january protest or their image will be tarnished.

[MASRI]

Egypt govt warns activists against Tuesday protest

CAIRO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The Egyptian government warned activists hoping to emulate Tunisian pro-democracy protesters that they face arrest if they go ahead on Tuesday with mass demonstrations some have billed as the "Day of Wrath".

The rallies have been promoted online by groups saying they speak for young Egyptians frustrated by the kind of poverty and oppression which triggered the overthrow of Tunisia's president. Similar calls have been made in other authoritarian Arab states.

Coinciding with a national holiday in honour of the police, a key force in keeping President Hosni Mubarak in power for 30 years, the outcome in Egypt on Tuesday is seen as a test of whether vibrant Web activism can translate into street action.

"The security apparatus will deal firmly and decisively with any attempt to break the law," the government's director for security in the capital Cairo said in a statement.

Since Egypt bans demonstrations without prior permission, and as opposition groups say they have been denied such permits, that effectively means that any protesters may be detained.

Interior Minister Habib el-Adli has issued orders to "arrest any persons expressing their views illegally".

"Our protest on the 25th is the beginning of the end," wrote organisers of a Facebook group with 87,000 followers. "It is the end of silence, acquiescence and submission to what is happening in our country. It will be the start of a new page in Egypt's history -- one of activism and demanding our rights."


PROTESTS RARE

But protests in Egypt, the biggest Arab state and a keystone Western ally in the Middle East, tend to be poorly attended and are often quashed swiftly by the police, who prevent marching.

The banned Muslim Brotherhood, seen as having Egypt's biggest grassroots opposition network, has not called on members to take part but said some would join in a personal capacity.

Cairo security director Ismail Shaa'er said the government had sent warnings to protest organisers that they would need an interior ministry permit: "In the absence of such permits, these demonstrations and sit-ins will be dealt with in a legal manner and those beyond the law will be arrested," he said.

Activists and the opposition say the interior ministry refuses to issue protest permits, citing security reasons.

Sympathisers across the world have said they plan to protest in solidarity. In Kuwait, security forces detained three Egyptians on Monday for distributing flyers for the protests.

"On January 25th, Egyptian protesters will carry their cameras as their weapons," one Facebook user wrote, 10 days after Tunisians faced down their veteran leader's police state in a revolt flashed around the world in website images.

"They will use cameras to capture every policeman who will attack peaceful protesters and every scene of our protests to show it to the world." (Additional reporting by Dina Zayed in Cairo and Eman Goma in Kuwait; Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptN...BrandChannel=0