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Egypt’s old and new battle over revolutionary discourse

The Mohamed Mahmoud Street protests mark the first attempt by nonpartisan revolutionaries to reclaim the narrative that has been hijacked by the military and the Muslim Brotherhood.
An anti-military protester leads chanting during a rally to commemorate the second anniversary of the deaths of 42 people in clashes with security forces on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, near Tahrir Square in Cairo November 19, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX15JW1

CAIRO — On the evening of Nov. 18, Helmy al-Sayed carried a placard that almost got him kicked out of a march in downtown Cairo. The words on it and the ensuing argument represented the type of problems march organizers wanted to avoid by holding it a day before the second anniversary of the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes and away from other events planned by opposing groups.

On that day, the chants were against the security forces, commemorating the five-day clashes in 2011 with the police in which over 45 were killed. Participants angrily ridiculed the announcements by pro-army groups and the police to mark the day. When they read Sayed’s sign, “Army, police and people, together mean the success of the revolution,” they kicked him out.

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