Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Egypt is witnessing some of the biggest riots in many years as thousands
of people took to the streets chanting slogans as "Mubarak Mubarak,
Saudi Arabia is waiting for you." Below is a chilling video of what's
happening in Cairo today. A young protester stood in front of a
water-hosing truck in a moment reminiscent of the Chinese man who
defiantly stood in front of a tank during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
Twitter was blocked in Egypt and cell phone communication was interrupted. Le Monde
has just reported many casualties among the protesters. You can follow
some of the latest on the page of the Facebook group " We Are All Khaled
Said" which called for the protests today. Khaled Said is the young
Egyptian businessman who was allegedly killed by the police after he was
found filming police officers dividing what they apprehended during a
drug bust.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.