Update March 27, 2007: Yesterday we protested at the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC from 11am-1pm. We were 25 Egyptians, Egyptian Americans, and people in solidarity, all coming from different backgrounds. There were people from Syria, Jordan, Yemen and USA. Two bloggers took part in the protest: My Occupied Territory and Solomon. The number of 25 people is considered a great SUCCESS given that we called for the protest only FOUR days ahead including a weekend, also we are not a well established group with constituency and mailing lists, it was mainly campaigned through Blogs, besides the flyers we hand-distributed in University and Cafes. Main stream media turned two deaf ears both before and after the event whereas bloggers in Egypt, Kuwait and USA supported our snap campaign

For making the banners and signs we were suppoted by friends from Syria, Tunisia and Palestine. It was a great working spirit that gave us comfort amidst the tension, frustration and rage that was building up every hour with the news coming from Cairo on the activists being brutalized by thuggery police while the US administration is tabbing Mubarak’s back

Hope was building up as we heard there will be a parallel protest also in New York City. We were in hourly contact with Shehab Fakhry, NY protest organiser (who just joined the blogsphere yesterday) and also our secular friends in UK who were joinig the Islamists protest at the Egyptian embassy in London but worked on organising themselves to deliver a secular message of protest as well

Hope.. did I just write that word? It is difficult to admit it now and I feel so naiive to say it.. I did have a secret feeling, sometimes close to intuition, the amendments WILL NOT pass! I was in a state of denial this authoritative, discriminative, opressive, intrusive scribbled shit can actually become the constitution for a great and proud country like Egypt

I came to United States January 28, 2007. I met with Condoleezza Rice 3 days later where she said “Please, whenever you hear people saying the Americans are backing off their democracy thing, they don’t care anymore about democracy, we care about democracy in the Middle East because its right to care about democracy in the Middle East, and because it is critical to the security of the United States. The reason we think that you have the Al Qaedas is because there has not been a way for legitimate political activity to take place”. Of course this turned out to be a joke. But more importantly than Condi’s note; I met a common woman who works at a stationary store in Wisconsin Avenue while xeroxing the protest flyer. Another customer in a suit and tie intervened to tell us we need a permission before distributing this flyer or demonestrating at the embassy. The woman took it as an offense, she raised her chin throwing her forehead backwards as she said firmly “No sir! they don’t need any permissions. Its in the constitution. Check it out”. Her comment struck me so deeply I was stunned for the following couple of days. “The Constitution” IS the book of the people! the book of citizenship.. Are we Egyptians ever going to give it due respect, especially after the mockery that became out of it after the farce referendum? or do we continue to roar only for the cartoons and its likes?n   

Back to the protest! You can see all our posters and signs if you click on this photo

 We chanted mostly in Arabic and whenever we roar “Yasqot Yasqot Hosni Mubarak” all the energy came back to our tired voices. Arabic chants were

باطل.. التعديل.. باطل.. الاستفتاء.. باطل.. مجلس شعب.. باطل.. فتحي سرور.. باطل.. حبيب العادلي.. باطل.. أمن الدولة.. ارهاب الدولة.. باطل.. التوريث.. باطل.. لجنة سياسات.. باطل.. جمال مبارك.. باطل.. يسقط يسقط حسني مبارك

يا مبارك حس كفاية.. ما كفاكشي كام ولاية.. مصر مش عزبة أبوك

مش عايزين تعديل دستور.. عايزينك ترحل وتغور.. يا مبارك غور غور.. خلي بلدنا تشوف النور

مصر بلدنا للحرية.. مش لعصابة الحرامية

يا حرية فينك فينك.. حبيب العادلي بيننا وبينك.. حسني مبارك بيننا وبينك.. التعديل بيننا وبينك.. والدستور بقى بيننا وبينك

يا حرية زقي الباب.. بعد طوائ جابوا ارهاب

حسني مبارك وجورج بوش.. بيلاعبونا حلق حوش

ادي مبارك فيزا.. وخديه يا كونداليزا

لا لمبارك أب وابن.. لا للعجلة والاستبن

قال ايه مجلس أمة.. واللي عاملينه همه

قول يا مبارك قول يا سرور.. هو صحيح عندنا دستور؟

دستور ايه؟ دستور يا سيادنا

يا بلدنا.. يا تكية.. يا وسية.. لعلاء والحرامية

وجمال مبارك عاملي لجنة.. لجل ما يورث سلطان أبوه.. يا ناس يا هوه

وكمان غنينا قوم يا مصري، ومصر يامه يا بهية، وبقرة حاحا.. وختمنا اليوم بالسلام الوطني “كفاية كفاية كفاية.. كل ظالم له نهاية.. مصر يا أم البلاد.. لسة فيكي اضطهاد.. في السياسة والاقتصاد.. عايزة ثورة يا بلادي” ن 

We handed a letter to Mubarak to Mr. Wael Aboul Magd, deputy chief of mission. You can download it here:

open-letter-to-mubarak-english.doc 

There could only be one good thing about Mubarak’s sham amendments; we got to meet the wonderful people Nader Tadros, Amy, and Naiem. We got to work with Dr. Ibrahim Hussein who is a truly wonderful Egyptian with a strong and proud identity although he left Egypt 1963. Dr. Ibrahim’s enthusiasm always rejeuvinated us when we got consumed. He drafted the letter to Mubarak and persistently delivered it to the embassy. It was also wonderful to re-unite with Ola Shahba in Washington DC after having protested together many times in Cairo   

Finally we would like to thank the bloggers

KABOBfest

Solomon

My occupied territory

Freedom for Egyptians

Kirmalak

Sandmonkey

alb Sayed

3arabawy

Wael Abbas

Ahmad Gharbeia

Amr Gharbeia

Malek

as well as our American friends Sumita, Joshua and Jesse

Egyptians against Mubarak(s) was an initiative of the ever proud Egyptian Southerner Zeinab aboul Magd, the efficient, alert, and committed Dina Khalifa, and the dinamo Samuel Tadros. Statements, photos and letters are posted on www.GoodbyeMubarak.com

كل مظاهرة وانتو طيبين.. لكن وحياة أبوك يا حسني كفاية تعديلات في أم الدستور لغاية ما تسيبها وتمشي بالسلامة.. خلي الأمور ماشية متلصمة زي ماهي ماشية دلوقتي.. البلد مسنودة على عود كبريت

— 

I am very tired at the moment so will write a summary here till I get to share with you more details. 

Today 25 Egyptians, Egyptian Americans, and People in Solidarity protested Mubarak’s constitutional amendments at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington DC.

We met with Mr. Wael Aboulmagd, Deputy chief of Mission and handed him a signed  Open Letter for to Mubarak protesting against the amendments and condemning the thuggery attack or on political activists in Cairo and demanding their release. I will be uploading the letter also soon. 

Mr. Wael said expressing our concerns and debating the amendments was very healthy. When I told him its a shame this can only happen in USA while fellows who were doing it in Egypt last night were kidnapped and beaten by security agents; he said “you don’t expect Egypt to change overnight. It will take more time for Security apparatus to change mentality”. He was nice. Promised to send the letter to Cairo in a minute. Well, I was sure State Security were waiting for it – not Mubarak. He also said the embassy staff do not represent the Mubarak regime, he volunteered to say they have excellent relations with Muslim Brotherhood in DC although I did not ask.

We chanted mostly in Arabic –  I played most of the Kamal Khalil role for the first time in my life and I assure you its not easy

You can check the photos here till I write you a detailed update