CAIRO: After demonstrating for six hours outside the U.S. Embassy, members of Gamaa al-Islamiyya decided to suspend their sit-in for a week. Earlier, hundreds of Gamaa al-Islamiyya members staged an open-ended sit-in outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo until Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman – an Egyptian al-Azhar scholar serving a life sentence in the U.S. over involvement in 1993 World Trade Center bombing – is released. The demonstrators suspended the sit-in after Rahman's sons met with the Head of the Military Police Hamdy Haddin, who articulated the ruling military council's support behind Gamaa al-Islamiyya's demands. The demonstrators began the protests earlier in the day with a solidarity march to the U.S. Embassy from Omar Makram Mosque after Friday prayers. Protestors lifted signs reading “Binding for a Day for Allah, to Release a Scholar from U.S. Prison” and “Open-Ended Sit-In to Support Imprisoned Scholar.” They also chanted “Sit-In, Sit-In, until return of Imam.” “Today we started a new sit-in phase. This is as a result of the demonstration phase failing. We demand the release of Omar Abdel Rahman,” Rahman's son Mohammed said earlier today. Mohammad added that the sit-in could escalate if demands are not met. “We decided to stage the sit-in outside U.S. Embassy because Washington neglects to release our father,” said Abdullah, Rahman's second son. He also called on the United States to respond to these demands, appreciate the peoples' will and establish a real reconciliation between the United States and the Egypt.
