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Is Culture Ministry Sit-In a Warm Up For Egypt's June 30 Protests?

Egyptian artists and intellectuals have staged a festive sit-in to demand removal of Minister of Culture Alaa Abdel-Aziz and a halt to his “Ikhwanization” policies.
Intellectuals and artists, who are anti-Mursi protestors, carry pictures of some of the popular Egyptian artists and writers as they demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Culture against what they claimed are increasing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood over the Ministry of Culture, in Cairo June 9, 2013. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi increased the influence of his Muslim Brotherhood over government in a cabinet reshuffle in May that replaced two ministers involved in crucial talks with the IMF over

CAIRO — June 12 marks the one-week anniversary of an ongoing sit-in by prominent Egyptian writers, filmmakers, performers and intellectuals seeking the removal of Minister of Culture Alaa Abdel-Aziz. They broke into the ministry building on June 5 to protest what they see as efforts to “Ikhwanize” the arts.

While the sit-in and accompanying protests in front of the ministry have been peaceful, with artistic performances every evening, the arrival of pro-Islamist counterdemonstrators in the late afternoon of June 11 led to minor skirmishes. Al-Ahram Online reported that the pro-Islamists, some from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya’s Building and Development Party, chanted, “Clean up [the ministry], clean up, minister.”

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