|
Around the square were makeshift clinics, set up in the entranceways of stores, including a KFC. At one, a man received an injection in his arm. Above another was the sign of an interlocking crescent and cross. Around 5,000 of the protesters prostrated themselves in prayer at noon. Though men and women prayed separately as is traditional, the women knelt in a block parallel to the men instead of behind them out of sight or in a separate area entirely as takes place in most Egyptian mosques. After uttering the concluding "God's peace and blessings be upon you" of the prayer, they began the chant: "Leave! Leave! Leave!" A number of celebrities of Egyptian cinema and TV joined the march, including Sherihan, a beloved screen beauty from the 1980s and early 1990s who largely disappeared from the public eye because of health issues. "This is really a popular revolution, it's civilized and honorable," she told Al-Jazeera TV. "We're calling on this to be the largest protest ever," said Mahmoud Salem, a youth activist and blogger. "We are hoping it will be the last one." He said that during Thursday's turmoil, his car was attacked by regime supporters as he and four friends tried to deliver supplies to the square. "It was like a zombie movie," he said, describing the rioters smashing the car windows and ripping off the side mirrors until he and his colleagues fled from the car.
Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate who is a member of a new committee formed by various factions to conduct any future negotiations on the protesters' behalf once Mubarak steps down, said that he hopes the demonstration "leads to Mubarak's departure." "The chaos is organized by his ruling party," Nour said. "There is a fifth column inside the regime that led the looting and violence." The committee and the protesters have refused any negotiations with the government over the country's transition until Mubarak leaves. Suleiman said Thursday said he had invited the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood to participate in any talks
-- a stunning concession to a group that the regime considers its worst enemy and has cracked down on ferociously in the past years. The Brotherhood has rushed to take a stronger role in the unprecedented protests that erupted 10 days ago, led by more secular young activists demanding the ouster of Mubarak. The Brotherhood's strength was on display in the pitched battles in Wednesday and Thursday against government supporters who attacked the protesters' camp in Cairo's central Tahrir Square before they were driven from the square by the pro-democracy forces. Brothers -- distinguishable by their close-cropped beards -- dominated the front lines, often lining up to pray for "victory or martyrdom," before throwing themselves into the fray, hurling stones, sticks and firebombs at the attackers while shouting "God is great." Amr Said, a 41-year-old chemist who said he is a Brotherhood supporter, told The Associated Press in Tahrir Square Friday morning that "our instructions are not to assume a role that is too visible at the moment, and to get along with all other groups including and leftist and liberals. "We also refrain from making our typically brotherhood chants and when one of us does, we quickly shut him up," he said. The potential of the Brotherhood gaining greater power has clearly weighed on the United States as it presses Mubarak to bow out. U.S. officials have said they want the transition to democracy to be stable to prevent any group from imposing its ideology. The editor of the Muslim Brotherhood's website told the AP that policemen stormed its office Friday morning and arrested 10 to 15 of its journalists. Abdel-Galil el-Sharnoubi said that the website was also being blocked.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor