Uprising in Egypt -- Democracy Now! Two-hour special (Feb. 5, 2011); Al Jazeera's 'Egypt Burning'
On Saturday, February 5, 2011, Democracy Now! aired a two-hour "Uprising in Egypt". Watch above or here.
Highlights included:
- Live reports from Cairo with Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat.
- Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif on how how life in Tahrir Square "is truly democracy in action".
- Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi on the the impact of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings on the Middle East.
- Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists on the continued attacks on journalists by supporters of the Mubarak regime.
- Khaled Fahmy, professor at the American University in Cairo, on reports that Hosni Mubarak has resigned as head of the ruling NDP party.
- University of California-Santa Barbara professor Paul Amar on the military’s role in a post-Mubarak Egypt.
- Stanford professor Joel Beinin on the Egyptian labour movement and the historical roots of the January 25 uprising. Watch this segment HERE (starts 6 minutes in).
- Egyptian-American activist Mostafa Omar on the role of the Egyptian youth in the protests.
- And the "video that started the revolution" – Asmaa Mahfouz’s January 18 message calling for protests in Tahrir Square on January 25.
Al Jazeera's 'Egypt Burning': the first five days of the January 25 revolution
This film tells the story of five days in January 2011 when the people of Egypt broke through a barrier of fear they had known for a generation and rose in revolt against their president.
Anger had long been brewing in Egypt - strikes, unemployment and sectarian tension were on the rise.
Small networks of activists had been agitating against Hosni Mubarak's autocratic rule for years. But it was only when another Arab country, Tunisia, rose up against its tyrant that the Egyptian activists attracted mass support.
People took to the streets across Egypt demanding political freedoms, an end to state corruption and a better quality of life for the impoverished population.
Egypt Burning captures those critical moments as history unfolded through interviews with Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground. Their coverage of this popular uprising made them the target of a state campaign to get Al Jazeera off the air.
Egypt Burning aired on Saturday, February 5, 2011.