Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
- Who Can Own Life? Farmer vs. Monsanto Before US High Court
- Profiting From Human Misery
- Decolonize the Consumerist Wasteland: Re-imagining a World Beyond Capitalism and Communism
- Scale Implosion: After Ruining America, the Era of Giant Chain Stores Is Over
- 5 Reasons Why the Keystone XL Pipeline is Bad for the Economy
Popular content
Today's Top News
Egypt Protesters Stage Mass Anti-Military Rally
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square on Friday for a mass rally aimed at pushing Egypt's ruling military to cede power, 10 months after an uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Over 50,000 Egyptian protesters flocked to Cairo's Tahrir square on Friday to pressure the military government to transfer power to elected civilian rule, after the cabinet tried to enshrine the army's role in a constitutional proposal. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany) As legislative elections draw near -- the first polls since Mubarak was ousted in February -- protesters are demanding more control over the constitution the new parliament is set to draft.
They want the withdrawal of a government document that proposes supra constitutional principles, which could see the military's budget shielded from public scrutiny.
Friday's protests are led by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and groups of varying political stripes under different banners who all agree that the military must transfer power to a civilian government as soon as possible.
"The people want a timetable for the handover of power," read one large banner hanging over the square.
Delivering the Muslim prayer sermon, imam Mazhar Shahin urged protesters to keep defending the goals of the revolution.
"Perhaps those who rule us think we will forget our cause with the passage of time. They are deluded and mistaken," he warned the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power when Mubarak was ousted.
"We reject the imposition of dictates on the people, we reject Silmi's document. No voice can drown out the voice of the people," Shahin told the crowd.
The contested government document, presented by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Silmi, drew fire from most quarters for including clauses that removed the military's budget from parliamentary oversight and allowed the SCAF a final say on military-related matters.
The government revised the draft, but Islamists, who organised a mass protest in July against such a charter, have rejected the very idea of a document that would limit parliament's authority to draft the constitution, branding the articles undemocratic.
The Brotherhood, through its Freedom and Justice Party, may emerge as the largest bloc in the election, the first since the fall of Mubarak.
"Those who fear Islamist movements in Egypt, I tell them don't be scared of Islam in Egypt," Shahin said.
"Egypt is Islamic, like it or not... We want a civic democratic state with an Islamic vision that allows people to practise their rights and democracy," he said.
Adham Hani left his home in the central province of Minya to join the Tahrir protest.
"We need the cancellation of the constitutional principles, we need a date for presidential elections," said the 25-year-old.
"Parliament will have no sovereignty as long as the SCAF is in charge," Hani said.
Close by, the head of the fundamentalist Gamaa Islamiya, Tarek al-Zomor, told AFP that the constitutional principles were a "circumvention of the people's will."
"We are here to stress the necessity of a timetable to civilian rule. If that doesn't happen, then it confirms the conspiracy to rob the revolution," Zomor added.
The SCAF, which took charge after Mubarak's ouster and suspended the constitution and parliament, says it will hand over power once a new president is elected.
Parliamentary elections will start on November 28 and are expected to end in March.
Friday's demonstration comes a day after 25 people were injured when a Coptic Christian march came under attack by assailants throwing stones and bottles.
Copts, who make up roughly 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million people, complain of discrimination in the Muslim-majority country.
There has been a spike in sectarian clashes since Mubarak was toppled.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
25 Comments so far
Show AllThe title,
"Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,"
is just a little bit misleading.
They really don't need the words "Council of the" in their title because that makes them seem a little less "supreme"ly.
At least they are more honest in their devotion to vanity and domination than say some equally arrogant and oppressive bunch of sadists who lie and call themselves
the "Defense Department." I guess we are supposed to believe it is like shopping in a department store, except that their currency is based upon bloodshed, compliance, and indifference.
Alright Eygpt...show us how it's done. Right on.
Ordinary people throughout the rest of the world are inspirational. Too bad the people of the United States don't catch on.
"Those who fear Islamist movements in Egypt, I tell them don't be scared of Islam in Egypt. Egypt is Islamic, like it or not... We want a civic democratic state with an Islamic vision that allows people to practise their rights and democracy," Shahin said.
whether "christian" america, zionist israel or islamic egypt, a government which acts as an arm of religion cannot help but devolve into a top-down theocratic hierarchy. too bad that so many "people of faith" have such little trust in the truth and virtue of their doctrines. i hear "insha allah!" and "our god is an awesome god!" and wonder why an omnipotent entity needs the backing and protection from man-created institutions.
just recently the u.s. most venal congress in an effort to flatter the supreme power reaffirmed "in g_d we trust" as the empire's motto. uh-huh, doesn't that appear on the lovely, lovely fiat dollars? yet, where would the awesome creator of the cosmos be without nuclear power to back up the "tuff talk"?
False secularism, and 'false' is indeed the key here.
hummingbird,
The money we use isn't really fiat.
It's a false commodity, proclaimed by those who create it, that would be the private, for-profit banking system, to have intrinsic value, which is a bald-faced lie.
Genuine fiat currency is nothing more than a contract between the people who agree to use it. It has no value whatsoever, unless you want to count the paper and ink.
Its worth lies in the agreement of a society to be bound by rule of law, of which fiat money is a creation, and the advantage of a stable, non-inflationary and equitable monetary system that can't be gamed by parasitic investors and financiers.
Real money is not and never was intended to be an instrument of profit, nor can any commodity be considered money.
Fiat money cannot be loaned into circulation for profit, which is usury plain and simple, because it is not privately controlled for that purpose. It is spent into circulation by the issuing government only in the amount required to conduct the commerce of the society and is not a commodity in any way, shape or form.
And therein lies the crux of all our past, present and future economic problems. A commodity based currency can never be the foundation for a stable, sustainable economy. History has shown this repeatedly.
The empire of Rome was built using fiat money. Its decline and fall were the direct result of the monetary system being privatised and manipulated for the profit of a few.
Commodities are privately owned and their value cannot be set by law. If any commodity is declared to be the value behind any currency, that currency is no longer money and the process of exchange is barter and the value of the representative currency is controlled by whoever controls the backing commodity.
If the government is the controlling agency and fixes the value of the commodity by law, then it is no longer a commodity. So there is no point in using the commodity to back the currency. It may as well be paper fiat money since its value is fixed and cannot be manipulated by the market.
Please read The Lost Science of Money by Stephen Zarlenga.
Also, study the information available here: http://www.perfecteconomy.com/
The writing style is a bit difficult to contend with at first but the wealth of knowledge to be gleaned is more than worth the effort.
Learn what money actually is and you will realise we haven't been using fiat money for a long time. We haven't been using money at all. We've been the victims of a scam of, quite literally, historic proportions.
i wish them all the strength they need..............
it is amazing that 10 months has already passed since the original uprising.........
ahsen naas....................
Ya, Can't keep a good people down... forever.
They cannot defeat the Idea.. push the Idea.
There is a really simple equation to this. Egypt - Population = ~81,000,000 divided by 50,000 protesters = ~0.062 % of the entire population.USA - Population = 312,000,000 divided by ~10,000(?) protesters = ~0.003 % of the entire population.IF United States = 'Protest like an Egyptian' = 312,000,000 population x ~0.062% = ~193,440 protesters before the capitol.Conclusion: Walk And Protest Like An Egyptian!
itsjustkarma -- Great post! (and I like the way you tied it with "walk like an Egyptian!") I was also thinking how great it would be if we could draw the numbers the way the Egyptian uprising has. We need a tipping point -- god knows haven't we had several of them by now? Come on Americans: BALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN!
"protesters are demanding more control over the constitution the new parliament is set to draft"
It looks like the Egyptians are grasping the fact that popular control over government is the only way, whether it is perceived as practical or not. In fact, the USA has demonstrated that conventional democracy simply does not work. It's a tough fact, that proper management of large, powerful central governments toward the people's better interests, is a whole lot of work. The question of whether, then, for the people to "leave it to the experts (elites)" or to take the plunge themselves and streamline that work, may seem worthy of debate.
But what is different today is that debate has been finally settled. The elites simply cannot be relied upon to serve the people. The people have to serve themselves. So get on with it, people. Streamlining the work of self-governance is a task that will pay the people great dividends. Once in place, the system will ensure that elites remain on the sidelines, out of the production loop, out of the policy loop. The people will oversee all of it, keeping it streamlined, stable, sustainable. Small wonder that the people have to take care of themselves. Tough life, self-determination.
From military dictatorship to theocracy.
These protesters want 2 things: War with Israel and to gang-bang Lara Logan again.
Thanks for your ongoing comedy routine, Mr. Snurdly!
Your rapier wit and sharp assessment of ironic social conventions make you a valuable addition to the Common Dreams stable!
I don't like the idea of a religious run government which it seems they may get. There should be separation of church/state. In this case mosque and state but I doubt it happens. They seem like they'll replace one strong arm with another. So where's the freedom? I don't see any if they end up with a religious dominated government. And yes I do not support or even like organized religion of any kind.
This should make you aware the Egypt "Revolution" was nothing more than a USG/NGO finance, planned, and executed destabilization operation. In short: a US Government FAKE democracy "revolution". OWS is the same: as USG/NGO destabilization operation. The more people in the US take to the square the greater the power of the police and the military grows, which will eventually lead to an open military government here as well. This is all being done, again, for the benefit of ISRAEL and not the US or the Egyptian people's. Wake up please, and do your research on this, because it all open source information. Google: "The Revolution Business" and "OWS Otpor"... Google: "CANVAS" or "Gene Sharp" ... Google: "F William Engdahl Arab Spring a western ploy"
I admire the Egyptian people, they are not afraid to stand up for what they want. Looks at the thousands of people there, willing to die to remove those military despots. Look at America, we far outnumber them but are incapable of holding a major cohesive March like this on Wall Street and Capitol Hill. We are intimated by a few police, only a few are brave enough to speak out, while other sit in the chairs and look at them on TV or criticize them. We can invade, bomb, occupy and bully other countries, but we are weak when it come to fighting for our rights in our own country. How pathetic!
Egypt protests back to SQUARE One!...the entire world watched the developments everyday then. The minimum agreed demands are to be in concrete terms. The first is the restoration of people's democracy.. from the hands of military to the civilian rule.
Egypt has been and still is an army with a country. As long as Egypt is the Prussia of North Africa nothing will change. Unlike Prussia, however, the army of Egypt will not be so stupid to invade a neighboring country, especially Libya, which would trigger a big war and defeat. The military will violently attack the protesters and if Mr. Obama protests the Egyptian brass will yell: "New York, Oakland, Detroit!"
A democracy in an Islamic country is quite laughable. That's like a GLBT club at the Vatican. All the recently deposed Arab dictators have been SECULAR and that was their downfall. They were only repressive and not Islamic...you have to both to suceed in that part of the world. Let's face it...there will bo no women's rights, no Gay rights, no free market, ande no peace with the west.
Yep, this is what the world associates America with: lgbt rights, women's rights, peace, secularism.
The Copts have suffered milleniums against the Arabs. That we would give the Arabs the upper hand against the Copts is disgraceful. We do not need to deny the Copts to appease Egypt!
Not until we get these turnouts of people both surrounding the NYSE and the US Congress will the powers that be take notice. While it does take time we all need to be part of the struggle as we take up where Martin Luther King left off: A revolution of VALUES. In the meantime, hackers should all do what has been done and that is hack into the personal, private fortunes of the rich and have these fortunes disappear by a click of their keyboards. A General Strike after we build critical mass.
What is happening in Egypt is no surprise. U.S. interests controlled the army under Mubarek and still does. U.S. only playing a game in saying it cares about the people there. It doesn;t care who or what is at head of Egyptian governemtn as long as its army knows who pays the bills and calls the real shots.
.