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Saturday, January 26, 2013

2nd Arab Spring? Anti-Muslim Brotherhood Protests Turn Violent in Egypt


If the photo is any indication, there were thousands upon thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the second anniversary of the Egyptian Arab Spring uprising. Last time around it was to protest President Hosni Mubarak and his regime, this time they were prostesting the Islamist they overwhelmingly voted for as president-  Mohammed Morsi. The people are so disenchanted, the protests have once again turned very violent with some 100 or so wounded, and at least seven dead. As a result, troops are being mobilized in the Suez Canal. Protesters have stormed buildings and even torched one of the Muslim Brotherhood's.

Egyptian protesters on Friday stormed the governorate headquarters in the canal city of Ismailiya and attempted to storm two other buildings elsewhere, witnesses said.

Protesters surrounded the governorate building in Damietta and in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh they stormed the courtyard of the governorate leading to clashes, witnesses told AFP.

Meanwhile, the headquarters of the political wing of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was torched in Ismailiya east of Cairo, an official told Al Arabiya.

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The Muslim Brotherhood said protesters also attempted to storm one of its offices in the Cairo district of Tawfikiya.

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Demonstrators outside the state television building in Cairo blocked traffic as marches of tens of thousands of people swarmed the capital, and tear gas was also fired at protesters in second city Alexandria.

I don't blame them, they fought long and hard for freedom, but did they really expect anything good to come of voting in to power the Muslim Brotherhood? And did the MB think the people would sit still while the little freedom they did have under Mubarak erodes even further.

Is the  beginning of a second Arab Spring?

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