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Egyptians stage mass protests
23/03/2004 18:13 - (SA)
Cairo - Thousands of Egyptians protested here on Tuesday for the second day against Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, some burning Israeli and US flags and calling for holy war.
Hundreds of people, sometimes as many as 1 000, gathered for each of the protests at two universities as well as at the lawyers' and journalists' union offices in the Egyptian capital, according to reporters.
"Oh leaders, open the door of jihad (holy war)," proclaimed black banners held aloft by hundreds protestors at the lawyers' union in Cairo. "The blood of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin will fuel the jihad everywhere."
The protestors brandished portraits of Sheikh Yassin, who was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike early on Monday just after he prayed in a Gaza City mosque. Later they burned American and Israeli flags.
At the journalists' union, protestors held aloft posters saying: "No to peace with criminals," and chanted slogans like the prophet "Mohamed's army has returned."
Riot police deployed en masse to ensure the protests went off peacefully.
At Ein Shams University, more than 1 000 students protested, chanting "negotiations achieve nothing. The gun is the only solution" and that they were "ready for martyrdom."
"No to America, the intifada will continue," the students chanted.
"We demand the expulsion of Israel's ambassador and we demand the Arab summit take economic and military measures against Israel and support the intifada with weapons and money," said one of the protestors, Mohammed Mahmud, 22.
At the University of Al-Azhar, the prestigious 1 000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, hundreds of women covered in Islamic headscarves staged their own protest.
They called for jihad and said they would be willing to die for the Palestinian cause.
"Yassin, be happy, wait for us at the doors of paradise," the students chanted, while holding aloft Korans and portraits of Sheikh Yassin.
An organiser of the protest at Al-Azhar said her group was "calling for a boycott of all Israeli and US goods, without exception, and we are demanding that the American and Israeli ambassadors be expelled from Egypt."
Protests were also held on Monday at Al-Azhar and Cairo Universities as well as at universities in Alexandria, Port Said, Kafr el-Sheikh and Asyut. No violent incidents were reported.
Since 1981 Egypt has been under emergency laws that give the authorities extensive powers to suspend basic liberties, including the right to strike and demonstrate.
Public protests are normally only tolerated on university campuses and inside mosque compounds.
- AFP
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