The struggle underway to influence and control the course of events in Egypt reflects Cairo’s importance not only for the Muslim East but also global politics. The most populous country in the region, Egypt sits at the crossroads of two continents.
The people of Egypt are gradually waking up to the reality that it is one thing to drive a dictator out, even one that has been around for as long as Hosni Mubarak — 30 years — and quite a different matter to change the political system and the culture of entitlement that has grown within it. There are many constituencies that have unfairly benefitted under the old system; they are not likely to give up their privileged positions so easily, Mubarak or not.
Displaying mule-like stubbornness, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's unpopular and beleaguered president, confounded critics and observers alike by refusing to quit even while his departure was much anticipated throughout the day on February 10.
The Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak is to make an address on national television, leading to speculation he will announce his resignation as president. This dramatic development followed a meeting of the Military High Council early in the day that was broadcast on television.
Pro-democracy and pro-dignity protests, into their 17th day, have now spread to Egypt's rubber-stamp parliament as well and joined by workers from many sectors, including textile, steel, hospital and docks at the Suez Canal.
While clinging to power with the backing of the military and his US-zionist masters, Hosni Mubarak's thuggish regime has targeted journalists. Al Jazeera has been singled out for particularly harsh treatment because its reports have exposed the regime's crimes most clearly. It chief correspondent in Cairo.
The fourth day of protests in Egypt has reached “the point of no return,” as numerous commentators on the street have noted. President Mubarak recently imposed a country-wide curfew, bringing in the military to complete the job that the police force failed to do—contain the Egyptian population’s mass protests.
The election last month of Mohammed Badei as the eighth Murshid al-‘Am (General Guide) of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, and the results of December’s elections for the Ikhwan’s Maktab al-Irshad...
