THE intelligent young people who organised the January 25 revolution will continue to amaze Egypt and the whole world with their brilliant ideas and their concern for their country and colleagues, who passed away during the 18 days of the demonstrations that ended with the toppling of the Mubarak regime. The courageous revolutionists who demonstrated peacefully have launched a campaign on Facebook calling for nominating the martyrs of the Egyptian revolution for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. To garner international support for the campaign, they want to create an electronic website in every world language to honour the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives to allow 85 million Egyptians to live in peace and liberty. It might be the first time for martyrs like these to be nominated for a peace prize, as most martyrs die in war or times of conflict. The Egyptian martyrs were different. They took to the streets to remove a totalitarian regime that repressed society for three decades and worked to have one of the President's sons succeed him, against the public will. Though they made it clear, from the very first moment, that their demonstration was peaceful, the police met the demonstrators with violence, killing more than 300 of them. One of those who fell, shot five times, was only 14 years old. If the Nobel peace institution broke the rules in 2009, awarding US President Barack Obama the Peace Prize, merely because he intended to work for peace in the Middle East, something he has failed to achieve, it is likely that the international community will accept the Egyptian martyrs being nominated for this year, especially as the world has expressed its admiration for the Egyptian revolution.
