Walt has the satellite cranked up. [You really ought to get on the power grid. Ed.] Just checking out the video of Cairo's Tahrir Square, where 1000s of Egyptians are gathering for another day of mass protest. The point seems to be to pressure the military rulers who succeeded Mubarak to speed up the transfer of power, as promised in the climax of the "Arab spring".
Transfer to whom? That's the 64 EGP (Egyptian pound) question. "Free and fair" elections are supposed to be held next week. The Freedom and Equality party, which any fule nose is run by the Muslim Brotherhood, is widely seen as likely to win. After that, Sharia law will become the law of the land, Christians and Jews will be driven out, and Egypt will at last become an Islamic fundamentalist state in law as well as in fact.
But, the BBC reports, demonstrators fear that the military intends to hold on to power, whatever the outcome of the vote. Innocent question: is it possible the Egyptian military is already controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood? If so, the MB could be orchestrating the demonstrations so as to have two dogs in the fight. Either way, they win.
The Muslim Brotherhood has refused to participate in today's protest -- or so it says -- presumably because it wants the election to go ahead to show how much support it has in the country. But if the elections are "postponed" or cancelled outright, they're not likely to be disappointed.
Footnote: Back in the days of Nasser, the Soviet-backed puppet who ruled Egypt after the West's failure of nerve in Suez, there was a short-lived "United Arab Republic", comprising Egypt and, errr, Syria. As Syria's bloody dictator "Basher" al-Assad runs out of supporters, don't be surprised if he turns to Egypt and the MB for help. Save your dinars! The UAR could rise again!
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