DN Wednesday, February 2, 2011: Please answer all questions:
- Pro-Mubarek agitators have entered the square on camel- and horseback, inflicting violence and particularly targeting Al-Jazeera journalists. They’ve been identified as being security forces in civilian clothes, oil company employees, and government workers. Why has the military allowed them past their checkpoints? The military has warned that they’ll intervene decisively if there’s violence against peaceful demonstrators. Do you think they’re looking for a reason to intervene or are they on the side of the people?
- Avaaz has a petition of international support which is aiming for a million signatures, which they then plan to broadcast through radio and satellite TV into Egypt. Read it and, if you agree, click on the link to sign.
- Foreign Policy in Focus gives surprising details about the Muslim Brotherhood. How do they describe themselves? (Cut and paste) Does this change your perception of them? Comment on this excerpt: “The Brotherhood is probably the most influential Islamist organization, with chapters all over the world. It has renounced its earlier support of violence and now prefers to acquire power politically. ‘The Brotherhood is a collection of national groups with different outlooks, and the various factions disagree about how best to advance its mission,’ write Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke in a 2007Foreign Affairs article. ‘But all reject global jihad while embracing elections and other features of democracy. There is also a current within the Brotherhood willing to engage with the United States.'”
- Phyllis Bennis, Middle East fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, has written Tunisia’s Spark, Egypt’s Flame: The Middle East is Rising. About halfway through the article, she talks about what this might mean for Israel. What will it likely mean for Palestinians in Gaza? (Cut and paste) How will that affect them? She writes, “The United States has military bases in Egypt, it pays off Egypt to guarantee its access to and effective control of the Suez Canal, and it relies on Egypt to carry out interrogation by any means necessary on detainees in the so-called ‘global war on terror.'” What might be different now?