CAIRO - Those members of the Egyptian entertainment community, who cast doubt on the loyalty of young activists in Al Tahrir Square in central Cairo, are now licking their wounds and whimpering pathetically. With their names being displayed at the top of a list of disgraced, anti-revolutionaries, they are now afraid that their popularity may have vanished forever. These entertainers include pop singers, who have made fortunes out of their albums, which have sold in their millions, and actors, whose films have been box office hits. Pop singers condemned by the youth activists in Al Tahrir Square include Tamer Hosni and Sherine. Hosni, the self-proclaimed ‘Singer of the Generation', was insulted and beaten when, in the middle of Al Tahrir, he attempted to defend the regime of ex-President Hosni Mubarak. He provoked the anti-Mubarak campaigners (his former fans) by attempting to persuade them to disband and go home. Their hostility towards him sprang from an anti-revolutionary statement he gave in the early days of the Revolution. Showing his loyalty to the Mubarak regime prior to its downfall, Hosni described the young activists as villains and thugs, whose attempt to cause instability would collapse disgracefully. The second name in the long list of condemned pop singers is that of Sherine, who has been forced to retreat (temporarily, at least) from the limelight. She has been accused of singing songs about Mubarak, in which she heaps praises on his head for his ‘wisdom' and ‘sound decisions'. Meanwhile, composer Amr Moustafa was too scared to meet with the angry youths in Al Tahrir. He provoked the ire of millions of people chanting anti-Mubarak slogans in the square, when he defended the reputation of the former leader. Moustafa appeared about two weeks ago on Egyptian TV, only to claim that the young activists were paid elements. He also insulted the thousands of martyrs in the October War of 1973, by saying that the former President alone deserved praise for the victory 38 years ago. "It seems that there are some people, who want to convince us that the ex-President was fighting the enemy alone in Sinai in 1973," said a disappointed film critic in a local weekly newspaper. Meanwhile, those pop singers ,who camped out with the young activists, hours after the eruption of the revolution, are now enjoying the fruits of their participation. They include Hamada Hilal and Mohamed Mounir, who sang nationalist songs to boost the morale of angry protesters until Mubarak threw in the towel.
