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Egyptian police anti war activists Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/5558770.htm http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/5558770.htm Posted on Fri, Apr. 04, 2003 Egyptian police arrest organizers of anti-war protest MAGGIE MICHAEL Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt AP) - A prominent Egyptian-American civil rights activist and more than a dozen others were arrested Friday after trying to hold an anti-war protest outside a mosque in Old Cairo despite the government's refusal to grant a permit. Ashraf el-Bayoumi, 68, who taught chemistry at the University of Michigan and Alexandria University, called The Associated Press by mobile phone as he, his wife and the others were being driven away from the Sayeda Aisha mosque in a police car. "There was no provocation, the demonstration didn't work out, we were not more than 30, we were heading back home when we were arrested without any reason," he said during the brief call. "I'm not concerned about myself, but concerned about the country." Civil rights campaigner Ahmed Seif el-Islam, the head of the Hisham Mubarak center, said about 100 demonstrators in all were arrested at the aborted protest, including prominent activists Abdel-Mohsen Hammouda and Nabil El-Hilali. About 20 were released a short time later, while the rest were still being held, he said. Police confirmed about 15 arrests had been made but details were not immediately available. Egypt has come under international criticism for arresting demonstrators, but allowed several anti-war protests in weeks leading up to the war, indicating authorities were seeking ways to let people vent their frustration. But they cracked down shortly after the war began after protesters clashed with riot police in downtown Cairo over two consecutive days, fearing political chaos after demonstrators criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally, for not doing more to support Iraq. Egypt's Interior Ministry said it "fully appreciated" the emotions surrounding the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, but would not permit unauthorized demonstrations. Since then they have been confined mainly to mosques, university campuses or stadiums. Friday's street protest had been postponed three times while organizers fought in court for a permit. They won this week but the Interior Ministry immediately appealed - and warned in a statement published on front pages Thursday that any gathering would be illegal. On Friday, around 10.000 people demonstrated inside Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, one of Sunni Muslims' oldest and most respected mosques, after Friday prayers. Another 10,000 demonstrated in Tanta province. Several hundred Jordanians took to the streets Friday chanting "down, down U.S.A." and burning American and British flags. About 1,500 political activists affiliated with hard-line leftist and Muslim opposition groups marched one-kilometer (0.6 (mile)- to the vicinity of the Amman office of the United Nations to protest against what they said was its inability to stop the war against Iraq. At Amman's Wehdat camp, home to 60,000 Palestinian refugees, some 300 young men rebuked Egyptian and Saudi leaders for failing to prevent the war on Iraq. "Mubarak, you are CIA," they chanted. In Bahrain, traffic in downtown Manama was halted for more than an hour by a march of more than 4,000 marched against the war, some carrying miniature versions of Scud missiles over their shoulders and others wrapped in white shrouds stained with red. Protesters asked their government to expel the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, which is based there, chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," and called U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair war criminals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.bayarea.com

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