Cairo’s central Tahrir Square was closed to traffic as dozens of protesters barricaded several entrances a day after it was forcibly evacuated by security forces and soldiers.

Groups of protesters lay in makeshift tents or explained their demands to passersby in the square, which was at the heart of 18 days of protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

“We want to see court rulings against the people who were running this country,” said 31-year-old Mahmoud Youssef, who owns a clothing store. “We want speedy trials. We want to feel that something is being done.”

Tahrir is a word of Arabic origin, meaning liberation. Tahrir square was originally called Midan Ismaileyya (English: Ismailia Square), after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district’s ‘Paris on the Nile’ design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square, but the square was not officially renamed until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which changed Egypt from a constitutional monarchy into a republic.[

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Bloomberg Egypt’s Tahrir Square Closed as Protesters Barricade Entrances

On January 25th 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak’s regime. These took the form of an intensive campaign of civil resistance supported by very large numbers of people and mainly consisting of continuous mass demonstrations. By January 29th it was becoming clear that Mubarak’s regime had lost control when a curfew order was ignored, and the army took a semi-neutral stance on enforcing the curfew decree. Some protesters, a very small minority in Cairo, expressed nationalistic views against what they deemed was foreign interference. Those critics held the view that the U.S. administration had failed to take sides. The critics also considered the Mubarak regime as friendly with with Israel.

On February 11th 2011, Mubarak resigned and fled Cairo. Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had stepped down and that the Egyptian military would assume control of the nation’s affairs in the short term. Jubilant celebrations broke out in Tahrir Square at the news with large crowds chanting ‘Allah Akbar’. Mubarak may have left Cairo for Sharm el-Sheikh the previous night, before or shortly after the airing of a taped speech in which Mubarak vowed he would not step down or leave.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters returned to the streets of central Cairo on Saturday, chanting slogans against Hosni Mubarak, just hours after the Egyptian president fired his Cabinet and promised reforms but refused to step down.

Thirty-eight protesters killed. 2,000 injured. Three Egyptian police killed.

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in central Cairo protesting the leadership of President Hosni Mubarak. Cairo in anarchy.

Police and military are not necessarily cooperative. Police shoot into crowd. Police opened fire on 1,000 Egyptian protesters trying to storm the Interior Ministry in Cairo Saturday, Plainclothes police officers beating demonstrators with batons.

Protesters are trying to convince police officers to abandon their jobs and join the protesters.

Business looted in downtown Cairo mall. KFC and Hardee’s smashed and looted. Increase in looting and robberies reported.

Report of vigilante groups forming in middle class neighborhood. Militias forming.

Egyptian army secures famous national treasure, Egyptian Museum, while the ruling headquarters burned next door.

The Egyptian capital Cairo woke up to the prospect of another day of protest on Saturday, as tanks rumbled through the streets and crowds gathered once more. The smouldering ruins of tanks and buildings bore testimony to Friday’s unrest.

Tanks sent into Cairo. Crowd unchallenged by troops. Some troops smiled and shook hands and hugged protesters.

Photo-op …
Children of protesters were listed up on tanks in the middle of the square to have their photos taken with troops as the hulking remains of the National Democratic Party headquarters building, home to Mubarak’s ruling organization, burned in the background.

4 p.m. curfew on Saturday ignored.

Cellphone service was restored Saturday morning, 24 hours after a government-ordered communications blackout attempted to stop Friday’s protests. Internet access remained blocked.

Helicopters evacuated the Israeli embassy staff to an Egyptian airbase on Friday, where they were flown back to Tel Aviv.

Troops were deployed on the streets of Suez on Saturday, as demonstrations against the government of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak entered their fifth straight day in cities across the country.

In Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked the policemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down

An Egyptian protest with demonstrators hoping to emulate the Tunisian uprising that led to the recent ouster of Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after nearly 23 years in power, resulted in two protesters shot dead by police.

Police opened fire on protesters Tuesday evening in the eastern Egyptian port city of Suez.

Dozens of protesters were arrested throughout Egypt, and hundreds more were injured when riot police clashed with protesters who were trying to cause President Hosny Mubarak to step down.

Tens of thousands of protesters participated in a “Day of Anger” in at least 16 cities nationwide. The protests were organized by over a dozen non-governmental organizations and rights groups,

See also …
Saudi News Today Two protesters shot dead in Egypt

A car bomb exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year’s Mass in Alexandria, Egypt early Saturday, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Following the blast, Christians emerged from the church and clashed with police then stormed a nearby mosque.

About 1,000 Christians attended the Mass at the Saints Church. The service had just ended, and worshippers were leaving the church when the car bomb exploded about 12:30 a.m. local time.

There were reports of dead bodies on fire in the street. At least seven people were reported killed and 24 injured.

There have been recent threats by al-Qaida members in Iraq threatening to attack Christians in Egypt.

In January 2009, seven Christians were killed in a drive-by shooting on a church in southern Egypt during celebrations for the Orthodox Coptic Christmas.

The Saints Church in Alexandria was also attacked in April 2006, when a man stabbed worshippers with a knife.

Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s mainly Muslim population of nearly 80 million people.

At least 100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested in Alexandria, Egypt on Friday, just days before the country’s legislative elections.

Earlier in the week, approximately 600 members of the Brotherhood were arrested.

Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers, often simply الإخوان Al-Ikhwān, The Brotherhood or MB) is an Islamist transnational movement, the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states, and the world’s oldest and largest Islamic political group. The MB was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna.

The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in the group. As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as independents.

Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country with Islam as its state religion. Around 90% are identified as Muslim.

The Egyptian legal system only recognizes three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. When the Government moved to computerize identification cards, members of religious minorities, such as Bahá’ís, could not obtain identification documents. An Egyptian court ruled in early 2008 that members of other faiths can obtain identity cards without listing their faiths, and without becoming officially recognized.

Egypt hosts two major religious institutions, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria established in the middle of the 1st century by Saint Mark the Evangelist, and Al-Azhar University founded in 970 A.D by the Fatimids as the first Islamic University in Egypt.

A large minority of Christians in Egypt make up between 5% and 20% of the population. Over 90% of Egyptian Christians belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Church.

Coptic Christians are discriminated against in Egypt and are not represented in government, state security and law enforcement. Copts are usually on the receiving end of anti-Christian hate crimes, which have been increasing since the 1970s. Since President Hosni Mubarak took office in 1981, more than 1,500 violent attacks against Copts have injured and killed thousands of Christians. Violent anti-Christian attacks in Upper Egypt during the 1990s forced thousands of Copts to flee to larger cities in Egypt or to immigrate; a form of unrecognized ethnic cleansing. The last 10 years witnessed a dramatic increase in the scale of anti-Christian hate crimes, including a number of massacres such as the 2001 Kosheh massacre and the 2010 Nag Hammadi massacre.

The 2000 Kosheh Massacre is actually the second massacre after a first massacre in 1998 when two Copts were killed by Muslims after they were falsely accused of poisoning a Muslim that actually had died of natural causes. The Second Kosheh Massacre took place about one year later, beginning on Friday December 31, 1999. The incidence stemmed from a quarrel between a Christian merchant and a Muslim customer. The misunderstanding strained Muslim-Christian relations in the community. Relatives of the Muslim customer targeted Christian-owned shops and homes, which were looted, destroyed, and burned. Initially, the police were able to contain the situation. However, two days later on Sunday January 2, 2000, riots spread violence into neighboring villages and lead to the murders of 21 Christians. One Muslim was also accidentally shot dead by a fellow Muslim

The Nag Hamadi Massacre occurred on the eve of January 7, 2010. The massacre killed 8 Coptic Christian occurred an was committed by Muslim gunmen in front of the Nag Hammadi cathedral, as Coptic Christians were leaving the church in celebration of the midnight Christmas mass according to the Coptic calendar.

After the attack, two other Coptic Christian women were killed in nearby villages when Muslim mobs set their houses on fire. Numerous Coptic businesses were looted and destroyed in the accompanying attacks.

Is the Society of Muslim Brothers involved in Christian persecution?
The case is not closed.

The incident occurred after Israel issued an “urgent” warning for its citizens to leave Egypt’s nearby Sinai Peninsula immediately, citing “concrete evidence of an expected terrorist attempt to kidnap Israelis in Sinai.”

The Egyptian report also claims IDF intelligence and special forces officers have been marking out routes for their air and ground forces to push into Iran and strike its nuclear installations.

Information was leaked to Shorouk, a publication which Egyptian intelligence often uses as an outlet for information believed to be credible.

Wikipedia: Shorouk | Shorouk Ibrahim El Moallem | Egypt | United States Fifth Fleet | Israel | IDF

SOURCE: DEBKAfile Egyptian sources: Israel prepares to strike Iran from Gulf and N. Iraq