Million Gathering of Reconciliation Between Mainstreams in Egypt

“We were trapped in Abbasseya on the 23rd of July” said Ahmed Ali one of the activists who were in the march that started from Tahrir Square and headed for the Ministry of Defense. Ahmed added “movements who announced the sit –in in Tahrir square agreed on launching this march a week before the 23rd of July. That day we were approximately 5 thousands gathered in Tahrir, around 4:30 pm we moved towards the premises of the ministry of defense in Abbasseya as a symbolic act to tell the military council that they are in charge of responding to the revolution’s demands which are delayed until now with no obvious reason!”

He continued: “All along the way we were attracting more people who showed solidarity to our march, we amounted more than 20 thousands then, arriving in front of El-Nour Mosque, there were barricades, barbed wires, armored vehicles, military police and national security forces stopping us from moving forward, all the side streets were blocked! Some managed to escape before the battle; the remaining protestors were roughly 4 thousands, we noticed there are around one thousand persons gathered in a side way on the right who started to tease us firstly by insults then they threw on us knives and rocks! We started to hit back the rocks thrown on us, we were surrounded from all the sides by these people, they were hitting us even from behind the police and military forces, so when we hit back, it would look like if we are hitting the police and military forces! It was a big mess, all the roads were closed we couldn’t retreat. El-Nour Mosque Imam succeeded to open us a side way out from this hell, he was the one who really saved us, as the police and military forces were watching us without any interference! We retreated back to Tahrir. We arrived at midnight there, of course there were a lot of injured, more than 300 as per the ministry of health, some of Abbasseya people said that there were military officers warning them that there will be a march of thugs that will destroy all your properties and you have to resist them! Anyway, Abbasseya residence organized two apologizing marches from Abbasseya to Tahrir claiming that they didn’t start the violence and that they were misled by the military officers.”

Echoes of what happened on the night of the 23rd are still ringing in the political scene in Egypt. The day after, talk show host Dina Abd El-Rahman was fired from her independent satellite channel due to her argue with Major General Hassan Rwayini, member of the Military Council, and Major General Abd El-Moneim Kato, a strategic expert, for the reason of her defending writer Naglaa Bedeir who was accusing the military council of unjustified violence on the 23rd. It is worth mentioning that two days before the sad events of the 23rd the Military Council issued statement number 69 in which Explicit charges for the youth movement “the 6th of April” of being Rioters and serve their own special agenda! The 6th of April along with other supporting youth movements refused the military council statement and asked the military council of showing his prove for these charges.

Islamic streams announced that they will hold a million gathering “Milyoneya” in Tahrir square for stability on Friday the 29th of July. This stimulated an increased worries about possible clashes between Islamic streams, who refused the sit-in after the Milyoneya of the 8th of July, and the liberal and youth movements who announced the sit-in. For the next 48 hours reconciliations and mediations acts took place between both, and the announcement of a new demonstration labeled “the Friday of reconciliation” bolstered the public. So yesterday another rally took place in Tahrir Square during which common demands of reconciliation between streams, speeding former regime figures trials, rights of the families of martyrs and the application of the “Treachery law” were raised along with other common demands.