Saturday 16 June 2012

Why Wasn't There A Gigantic Tahrir Protest This Friday?

Photo of Tahrir at 1:18 PM, via @SkyNewsEd

I have no idea.

The dissolution of Egypt's first freely-and-fairly elected parliament, the sometimes so-called "The Parliament Of The Revolution" (though rarely dubbed as such by anyone other than certain media outlets and the Islamists) should have theoretically led to at least one of the biggest 5 protests since 11 February  2011. Instead, this was one of the smallest. A few complementary theories why.

1- This parliament was becoming quite unpopular, for many normal Egyptians as well as for many pro-revolutionary forces, whether organised or street-based, especially liberal-leaning ones. It's dissolution was met with mixed emotion, especially given the recent farcical showdown over the second Constituent Assembly.

2- An understandable temporary exhaustion by the revolutionary street, on more than one level.

3- With the controversial runoff elections scheduled today and tomorrow, perhaps many are holding their breaths to see what is going to happen, and then consider their move.

4- The relatively calm response by the current face of the Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, also seemed to have cooled off some of the potential escalation.

But anyway, I am just thinking out loud.

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