Youth movements insist last Friday's mass protest was an opportunity to restore public confidence in them, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky On Tuesday afternoon, two days after youth movements announced they had suspended their sit-in, hundreds of military police and central security forces descended onto Tahrir Square to empty it by force of remnants of demonstrators, including hundreds of families of those killed during the revolution. Forces opened the square to vehicles for the first time since 8 July, military spokesman Major General Ismail Etman said in a TV interview, announcing that dozens of thugs, armed with swords and knives had been arrested. Etman added that hundreds of people who work in the commercial area around Tahrir Square had been complaining to the army about the closure of the square which they said affected sales and tourism. Small scale clashes erupted when riot police arrived in the square to take down tents erected by the protesters. Meanwhile, for some youth leaders, last Friday was an important day in Egypt's eight- month-old revolution, claiming that public opinion was afforded the opportunity to understand how youth movements are seeking to make Egypt united while Islamists are working only for their interest, as Abdel-Rahman Samir, a member of the Youth Revolution Coalition (YRC), believes. "After last Friday, I think the youth groups maintained their image as a guardian of the Egyptian revolution, while it became clear that the Salafis and other Islamist groups care only about their own agenda," Samir added. Two days before the "Friday of Public Will and Unity" mass protest as it was dubbed, Islamist groups and youth movements reached a pact unifying their demands. The two sides agreed on calling for a speedy prosecution of former president Hosni Mubarak and police officers who were involved in killing peaceful protesters during the 18-day revolution, as well as sacking the prosecutor-general. But the agreement did not last for more than a few hours, senior members in the YRC told Al-Ahram Weekly. After Friday prayers the youth movements just about disappeared from the square, forced out of stages by Salafist groups. While most protesters from across the political spectrum have been chanting slogans criticising the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and calling for those who were involved in killing demonstrators to be tried, the Islamists were pushing in a whole different direction. A host of pro-Islam chants, including "Hold your head high because you are a Muslim" could be heard across Tahrir while banners bearing aggressive anti-secular slogans -- "Beware the enemies of the country and Islam" -- were widespread. The Islamist takeover worked in favour of the youth movements, according to Mohamed Nazili, a YRC member. Nazili said youth used the protest to restore their image in the eyes of the public. By the afternoon, a youth statement stated that 33 political groups, most of which had been part of the Tahrir sit-in for three weeks, decided to withdraw from the Friday demonstration in protest at what they charged was an Islamist violation of the agreement. "While all civil political forces and youth groups abided by the agreement in opposing the military council's divisive plans and staying away from points of contention, some Islamic forces violated the agreement and chanted slogans, hung banners and spread flyers that showed our differences," the statement said. The statement added that youth groups decided to "stick to their principle of maintaining the peace by withdrawing from the demonstrations to avoid any kind of clashes which might erupt with the Islamists." "There was an agreement signed by all political groups including most of the Islamic groups to hold a Friday of national unity," said Khaled Abdel-Hamid, a YRC member. Abdel-Hamid added that the youth movements wanted to send a message to the SCAF, the ruling military council, that Egypt's political forces are united. "Unfortunately only controversial points and demands which were disagreed upon were raised in the square on Friday," he added. The revolution's demands stated by youth groups included compensating the "martyrs' families", setting a minimum and maximum wage limit, sacking the attorney-general, setting a timeline for the SCAF to hand over power to a civil body and putting an end to military trials of civilians. "The majority of Egyptians know that this revolution was not to implement Sharia but was for freedom and social justice," said Nazili. Friday's mass protest was not necessarily a crucial episode in the youth groups' daily confrontation with the SCAF since the military establishment has already taken serious steps to meet the youth's demands, including prosecuting Mubarak and former minister of interior Habib El-Adli publicly in Cairo. On Sunday, the youth movement announced it will suspend their sit-in in Tahrir Square during Ramadan to allow the government and the SCAF to meet their demands. "This time it was different. We did not go to Tahrir to put the army under the spotlight, but the Islamists," said a senior YRC member to the Weekly. He added that the Islamists now are isolated after the majority of Egyptians saw them live on TV kicking out any non-Islamists from stages during the protest on Friday. On Friday night and Saturday, youth movements held intensive meetings to help secular forces, liberal and leftist, forge a coalition. On Sunday night a number of representatives of leftist and liberal parties held a huge political rally in the Delta city of Mansoura. Amr Hamzawi, a spokesman for the Egypt Freedom Party, announced that a number of liberal political forces are in the process of forming a new broad coalition "in order to counter the growing influence of Islamic and religious movements." Hamzawi told the audience that Egyptians have to choose between building a new civil state or a theocratic state. "The calls for a religious state by Islamic groups during last Friday's demonstration encouraged the liberal parties to take this step," Hamzawi said. Ayman Nour, head of the Ghad Party and potential presidential candidate, rejected both an extended period of military rule as well as calls for a religious state. Nour said that liberal forces had to listen carefully to what other conservative Salafist forces have to say and figure out ways to engage them in political debate. Hamzawi called for a document of constitutional principles "so as to prevent the Islamists from forming a religious state should they win the elections." Osama El-Ghazali Harb, head of the Democratic Front Party, said that last Friday's liberalism did not contradict with any of the Abrahamic religions. "Those who are against liberalism and freedom of thought will pull us into a dark cave," Harb said. "Only a secular state can regulate the relationship between religion and governance." According to Amr El-Shobaki, an expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, the youth movements won the day as their decision to withdraw "showed how civilised they are and how they put the unity of the Egyptian people as their top priority. "It was the civil, non-religious groups, mostly youth, who initiated the mass demonstrations that sparked the revolution and brought down the former regime," El-Shobaki added.
