Friday - January 28, 2011

Looks Like A Traffic Jam On Arab Street

Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central Amman Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider freedoms.

A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.”

Banners and chants showed a wider range of grievances than the high food prices that fueled earlier protests, and included demands for free elections, the dismissal of Prime Minister Samir Rifai’s government and a representative parliament.

The protest after Friday prayers was organized by the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood which is the only effective opposition and biggest party, but included members of leftist parties and trade unions.

Jordan’s protests, as in several Arab countries, have been inspired by the uprising that overthrew the Tunisian president.

“After Tunisia, Arab nations have found their way toward the path of political freedom and dignity,” said Zaki Bani Rusheid, a leading Islamist politician.

Demonstrations have taken place across Jordan calling for reversal of free-market reforms which many blame for a widening gap between rich and poor.

Islamists marched through central Tunis on Friday, demanding religious freedom, while police fired teargas at anti-government protesters who have camped out around the prime minister’s office.

The march by about 200 people was the first significant Islamist protest since the fall of president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who ran a strictly secular state in which Islamists were often jailed or forced into exile.

Some carried placards reading: ”We want freedom for the hijab, the niqab and the beard.”

Under Ben Ali’s rule, women who covered their hair by wearing the hijab, in the Muslim tradition, were denied jobs or education. Men with long beards were stopped by police.

Tunisia’s uprising has electrified Arabs across the Middle East and North Africa, where many countries share the complaints of poor living standards and authoritarian rule.

Inspired by Tunisia’s example, tens of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets to demand an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

Tunisians protested outside the Egyptian embassy in Tunis, calling for the overthrow of Mubarak and other Arab leaders.
...
Protests have also spread to Yemen, where thousands took to the streets to demand a change of government.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians streamed out of mosques after Friday prayers and took to the streets to demand the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power. They clashed with thousands of riot police deployed to crush the protest. Reports from on the ground depict ongoing fierce running battles between police and protestors in Cairo, Alexandria, and other cities.

At the upscale Mohandiseen district, at least 10,000 of people were marching toward the city center chanting “down, down with Mubarak.” The crowd later swelled to about 20,000 as they made their way through residential areas. Residents looking on from apartment block windows waved at them and whistled in support. Others waved the red, white and black Egyptian flags.

At Ramsis square in the heart of the city, thousands of protesters clashed with police as they left the al-Nur mosque after prayers. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets and some of the tear gas was fired inside the mosque where women were taking refuge.

Mubarak is Washington’s closest Arab ally, but Washington has signaled that he no longer enjoys its full backing, publicly counseling him to introduce reform and refrain from using violence against the protesters. He has not been seen publicly or heard from since the protests began Tuesday.

Friday’s demonstrations were energized by the return of Nobel Peace laureate ElBaradei on Thursday night, when he said he was ready to lead the opposition toward a regime change. They also got a boost from the endorsement of the country’s biggest opposition group, the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

Seriously, I’m wondering. Granted that the guy in Tunisia was quite the little dictator, and he had to go. But in these other countries ... it seems the Muslim Brotherhood is behind all of this. Let’s not loose sight of an unpretty truth: the people in these countries are among the least educated in the whole world. The mullahs say “jump”, the fellahs say “how high?”. Islam has far more power of these people than even the Roman Catholic Church had over colonial Ireland.

So I’d really like to be able to figure out whether this is an honest move towards democracy and freedom across the whole region, or just an excuse seized by the extremists to try and grab power for themselves. Demanding the hijab and the beard is not calling for freedom. It’s calling for the power to oppress others. It’s a demand to bring in the Taliban under some other name.

So naturally, Oasshole has changed the USA’s stance on Egypt.

Egypt is one of the most important U.S. allies in the Arab world but as the Mideast country sees the biggest anti-government protests in years, inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia, the public support of the U.S. has become less assured.

In an interview broadcast live on YouTube on Thursday, Obama said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been “an ally of ours on a lot of critical issues.”

But Obama added: “I’ve always said to him that making sure that they’re moving forward on reform, political reform and economic reform, is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt.”

Maybe that’s a good thing? I seem to recall that we’ve been feeding Egypt billions over the years, yet they seem to help out the PLO whenever they feel like it, then they turn around and collapse some tunnels under the Gaza border. Dissidents and rabble rousers get jailed, but so do bloggers and journalists. And Christians there continue to get murdered. It’s a mess.

I’m waiting to see if Libya explodes with protests. And Algeria as well. Hey, maybe they’ll all revolt and then become one giant country, united under the green banner.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/28/2011 at 01:35 PM   
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