Tuesday
Oct312006
Clashes in Ain Shams University
Hossam el-Hamalawy
Bloody clashes have been going on for the third day on the row at Ain Shams University campus in Abbassiya, as student union elections approach.
Pro-government students assaulted Muslim Brotherhood activists at the Faculty of Education at Ain Shams University, and tore down their electoral posters. The MB mobilized demos to denounce the attacks, but they were only met by violence.
Pro-government students, armed with sticks and knives, viciously attacked the Brothers, and brought into campus truckloads of Baltaggiya (criminal thugs), who have spread terror on campus.
Click on the pic below to watch a slideshow of the clashes…
And where was the University's Security, which Minister of Education Dr. Hani Helal described in today's Al-Masry Al-Youm as "without it, we would have been screwed"? (I'm not joking. That's the quote.) NO WHERE! The security did not intervene to stop the assaults, and actually aided them. Under their watchful eyes that those herds of Baltaggiya were allowed into campus.
I've spoken with Emad Mubarak, the director of the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression, who follows abuses against students closely, and he said this year the government is not taking it lightly at all with the SU elections. "Already the intimidations started before Eid," he said. "Posters were torn down several times before, but for two days this bloodshed has went out of control. Three students at least have been hospitalized with serious injuries. This exposes what sort of lies the minister of education is spreading in the press about freedoms on campuses."
UPDATE: Here's also a report from the Socialist Students' blog.
UPDATE: Protests at Helwan University after security banned MB candidates from running.
Pro-government students assaulted Muslim Brotherhood activists at the Faculty of Education at Ain Shams University, and tore down their electoral posters. The MB mobilized demos to denounce the attacks, but they were only met by violence.
Pro-government students, armed with sticks and knives, viciously attacked the Brothers, and brought into campus truckloads of Baltaggiya (criminal thugs), who have spread terror on campus.
Click on the pic below to watch a slideshow of the clashes…
Above: A criminal thug, armed with knife, brought to campus by pro-government students to participate in the assaults on opposition activists. Photo taken by MB students
And where was the University's Security, which Minister of Education Dr. Hani Helal described in today's Al-Masry Al-Youm as "without it, we would have been screwed"? (I'm not joking. That's the quote.) NO WHERE! The security did not intervene to stop the assaults, and actually aided them. Under their watchful eyes that those herds of Baltaggiya were allowed into campus.
I've spoken with Emad Mubarak, the director of the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression, who follows abuses against students closely, and he said this year the government is not taking it lightly at all with the SU elections. "Already the intimidations started before Eid," he said. "Posters were torn down several times before, but for two days this bloodshed has went out of control. Three students at least have been hospitalized with serious injuries. This exposes what sort of lies the minister of education is spreading in the press about freedoms on campuses."
UPDATE: Here's also a report from the Socialist Students' blog.
UPDATE: Protests at Helwan University after security banned MB candidates from running.
Reader Comments (1)
The 'moderate' government of Mubarak that the Americans want spearheading a Sunni arc in the Middle East.