Middle East Focus: Ghosts of Ahmad Urabi in Cairo………

Arabia Deserta

Ghosts of Ahmad Urabi in Cairo………

Walking on water

“Clashes broke out in central Cairo today after hundreds of Egyptians took to the streets to protest against what they claimed were plans for the president's son to assume power. Lines of riot police encircled and attacked demonstrators opposed to Gamal Mubarak outside Abdeen palace, the site of a 19th-century nationalist revolt against monarchical and colonial British rule. It is widely believed that Gamal, now 46, is being groomed to succeed his father, Hosni, 82, as Egypt's next ruler. The younger Mubarak accompanied the presidential delegation to peace talks in Washington this month……’”

They assembled at Abdin Square, at the same place where Ahmad Urabi led a protest against the khedive in the early 1880s, sometime before the battle of Tel El-Kabeer against the British invaders (1882). Urabi’s reported message was that “people were born free, so how dare you enslave them?” The answer was easy, they could and they did, and they are still doing it.
After the military defeat at Tel El-Kabeer, Urabi was sent into exile by the British. Arab oligarchs must have learned the habit from the British: sending people into foreign exile in faraway places.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com