Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2022 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Egypt

Mubarak’s Response to Demand for end of Military Rule

Juan Cole 01/29/2011

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Gen. Hosni Mubarak’s response to a mass uprising demanding an end to military rule in Egypt?

He appoints the former head of Egyptian military intelligence (Omar Suleiman) his vice president (and therefore likely successor).

He appoints the Air Force Chief of Staff (Ahmad Shafiq) as prime minister.

Can you spell TONE DEAF?

Meanwhile, crowds in the streets in Cairo, Suez, Mansoura, Alexandria into the night, defying curfew. Police fired on demonstrators in Alexandria & around the Ministry of Interior building in Cairo, some reports say 100 have died in the past few days. Army mostly not intervening in either demonstrations or looting, decline of security. Police absent altogether. Neighborhood militias being thrown up to guard against thieves, burglars, rapists invading. Light looting of Egyptian museum halted by patriotic crowd joining hands, then army came in there. Some say Mubarak ordered police to stay home and give middle classes a taste of what life is like without the law and order he provides. Don’t know if it is true. If so, would indicate attempt to play on class anxieties and to cast the uprising as a mob of greedy slum dwellers.

Aljazeera English live stream here.

Filed Under: Egypt

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Us

Help keep independent journalism alive and donate online, or make checks payable to:
"Juan Cole"
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
(No parcels, please)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2022 All Rights Reserved

Posting....