While the concerns of Iraqis and Lebanese, and more recently of the people in Iran, are legitimate, the manner in which external agents have infiltrated and weaponized these protests reveal a sinister agenda: regime change through sabotage!
The military has ordered the police to use maximum force against peaceful protesters in Egypt. The police are happy to oblige as the rampage after Juma prayers today demonstrated yet again. At least 19 protesters were shot and killed across Egypt and dozens injured. Their crime? They were protesting against the forthcoming referendum on a new constitution that has been drafted by a committee hand-picked by the military.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s heavy-handed response to Taksim Square protesters has exposed his intolerant streak. Turkey’s claim to being a “role model” for other Muslims has become untenable.
Protests in Turkey do not deserve the kind of coverage we have given, says a reader. The government has ended the sale of alcoholic drinks and should be supported rather than opposed!
Anti-government protests that were relatively small were talked up as bringing out hundreds of thousands of people into Tahrir Square.
Muhammad al-Hashimi, a scholar of international political economy with special research focus on African and Muslim countries, looks at some key developments in Ethiopia.
1Pro-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.
Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators are camped in Tahrir Square in Cairo, refusing to leave despite attempts by the illegitimate regime of Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian military to force them out.
