Content about Hosni Mubarak
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy Saturday and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human rights lawyer in a sharp escalation of tension between two regional powerhouses already on shaky terms due to uprisings in the Arab world.
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world’s most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent elections after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt’s vibrant film industry and freedom of speech.
CAIRO — Fans charged in Egypt’s deadliest soccer riot declared their innocence in the first session of their trial Tuesday, directing their anger toward police, charged with collaborating in the killing of 75 supporters of a rival team.
Nine senior officers, including six police generals and a colonel, are among the 73 people charged in the case. The officers were present in the courtroom, dressed in traditional white defendant uniforms, but they were not held in the courtroom cage with the rest of those on trial.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Thursday warned that Egypt’s Sinai desert is becoming a “terror zone” and vowed to strike at militants there after a rocket fired from the area hit a southern Israeli resort town.
CAIRO — Egypt’s powerful Islamists on Monday faced a backlash on two fronts as they try to solidify their hold on the country’s politics, as liberal politicians quit a panel tasked with drafting a new constitution to protest its domination by Islamists.
More ominously, the ruling military issued a veiled threat of a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood if the group persisted in demands to form a new government.
CAIRO, Egypt — Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt’s Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died Saturday. He was 88.
CAIRO — Stoking tensions with Washington, an Egyptian Cabinet minister has accused the United States of directly funding nonprofit groups to create chaos in the country following last year’s ouster of longtime leader and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, according to comments published in state-owned newspapers on Tuesday.
International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga made the remarks in a testimony she gave in October to judges investigating allegations the groups used foreign funds to foment unrest.
CAIRO — Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt’s first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.
CAIRO — Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians turned out in long lines at voting stations Monday in their nation’s first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a giant step toward what they hope will be a democracy after decades of dictatorship.
Some voters brought their children along, saying they wanted them to learn how to exercise their rights in a democracy as they cast ballots in what promises to be the fairest and cleanest election in Egypt in living memory.
CAIRO — Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government. At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.
CAIRO — Growing in confidence after eight months in power, Egypt’s military generals appear more determined than ever to crush the protest movement that ousted Hosni Mubarak and has turned critical of their rule.
This week, they detained Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a blogger whose activism made him an icon of the anti-Mubarak uprising, and — in an accusation that was derided by fellow activists — said he was to blame for stirring up violence at an October protest where 27 people were killed when soldiers cracked down.
CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptian police launched a nationwide strike on Monday to demand better salaries and a purge of former regime officials from senior security posts.
About 3,000 lower ranking police rallied in front of the Interior Ministry in central Cairo to push their demands, including a 200 percent pay raise. They also called for an end to military trials for lower ranking police.
Police said they would hold an open ended sit-in until their demands were met, as around 12,000 went on strike. Egypt has 350,000 police altogether.
At approximately 3 p.m. on Oct. 9, my dad received a frantic phone call from a family member in Egypt. All my family could hear was my dad saying, “Hello? What, Michael?! I can’t understand what you are saying! What massacre happened?!”
CAIRO — The surprise assault on Israel’s embassy in Cairo has pushed Egypt’s ruling military deeper into confrontation with a protest movement openly accusing the country’s caretakers of trying to cling to the legacy of Hosni Mubarak rather than dismantle it.
A potentially destabilizing showdown between the two rivals now seems increasingly likely.
CAIRO — From a bed inside the defendants’ cage, an ashen-faced Hosni Mubarak showed a glimmer of his old defiance. Egypt’s former president wagged his finger in the air and denied all charges against him Wednesday as he went on trial for alleged corruption and complicity in the deaths of protesters who helped drive him from power.
The spectacle, watched live on state television by millions of Egyptians, calmed the fury of those who suffered under his rule.
Egypt has the chance to install a true democracy if it conducts its elections effectively, a Harvard University professor said Thursday.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned in February after weeks of a popular uprising, designed his autocratic government to be a resilient institution that could stand up to attempts at overthrow and bring together elites to manage the country, Harvard associate public policy professor Tarek Masoud said in a talk hosted by the Robert S. Strauss Center.
A UT graduate student stood with protesters in downtown Cairo as they barricaded themselves against military attacks and fought for a revolution in the midst of former President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.
Law and urban planning graduate student Sherief Gaber flew straight into Cairo on Jan. 30 to join the protests in Tahrir Square before Mubarak stepped down from the Egyptian presidency. Gaber, who grew up in the United States but holds dual citizenship, booked a ticket to Egypt on Jan. 28.
Egyptian people took to the streets in celebration rather than protest Friday morning when the historic announcement of 30-year President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation hit the airwaves.
Austin supporters of the movement hit the streets as well Friday evening in an event spearheaded by the International Socialist Organization and members of the Austin Arab community.
On the first day of the protests in Egypt, Jordan Bellquist spent an ordinary day at home with Mama, her Egyptian host parent.
Bellquist, a radio-television-film and Arabic senior and Arabic Flagship Program participant, knew there were protests in Alexandria, but everyone expected them to be peaceful.
An open letter from a UT professor urging President Obama to support vocally the cause of the Egyptian protestors has drawn the signatures of more than 150 political scientists across the country.
In the face of demonstrators demanding the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Obama was slow to declare a position, said Jason Brownlee, an associate professor of government and Middle Eastern studies. Brownlee said he wrote the letter to draw public and political attention to the United States’ place in the unrest.
Cries of “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Mubarak’s crimes,” rang across the lawn in front of the Capitol on Saturday as protesters waved Egyptian flags and chanted to support the Egyptian uprising for democracy.
Austinites carried anti-Mubarak signs in support of the Egyptian people’s fight to end President Hosni Mubarak’s rule of nearly 30 years. The International Socialist Organization and the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a UT organization, organized the rally to express their discontent with the American government’s military funding to Egyptian officials.
