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Protestors
urged the government to bar U.S. and British warships from sailing
through the Suez Canal en route to the Gulf
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ALEXANDRIA,
Egypt, April 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - More than
25,000 Egyptians staged a fervent anti-war demonstration in an
Alexandria stadium Tuesday, April 1, branding U.S. President George W.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "terrorists"
and "war criminals."
He
infuriated protestors exhorted the government to close the Suez Canal
before U.S. and British warships sailing en route to the Gulf to join
the massive build-up participating in the war on the fellow Arab
country.
This
came one day after President Hosni Mubarak argued that international
treaties bar Egypt from preventing Anglo-American warships from
sailing through the canal.
The
gathering, made up of mostly young men, marched around the stadium
carrying a coffin with the word "U.N." inscribed on it,
lambasting the world body for having failed to stop the British and
U.S. invasion of Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also came under fire from the angry
Egyptian protestors who carried an effigy of him holding a
blood-stained knife and crushing the Dome of the Rock mosque with his
other hand.
Arab
and Muslim leaders were not spared the criticism.
"Innocent
children are dying while Muslim and Arab leaders ignore them,"
read one large banner, reflecting widespread feeling that those
leaders could have done more to stop the war waged
on March 20.
The
rally was organized by the ruling National Democratic Party and
Alexandria's governor Abdel Salam el-Mahgoub.
"No
to American-Zionist Nazism," read another banner, while a third
said: "Israel will not extend from the Nile to the
Euphrates."
The
war on Iraq has triggered massive demonstrations across Egypt during
which some protesters slammed pro-U.S. Arab leaders for not taking
decisive action against the war.
On
March 20, some 15,000 Egyptians gathered
at Al-Tahrir Square, down town Cairo, to express their fury at both
"Washington’s aggression against Iraq" and what they
termed "treacherous Arab regimes."
Security
presence in and around Egypt’s largest square was heavy and even
exaggerated and unnecessary and hyperventilated violence was used
against the protesters.
Some
150 people were injured
in clashes between the police and the angry demonstrators.
The
clashes broke out after demonstrators tried to break through police
lines protecting the U.S. and British embassies.
A
group of prominent Egyptian intellectuals
issued a statement protesting President Mubarak’s televised address
in which he heaped blame on Iraq for the current American military
aggression on the Arab country.
