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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tahrir Square millions: "To Jerusalem we head, martyrs in the millions" (updated)

From the "Angry Arab News Service" blog on Friday:


For those who say that there are no foreign policy goals for Egyptian protesters, you need to watch this. In it, Egyptians (more than 2 million today) in Tahrir Square chant: "To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions." (Yes, it rhymes in Arabic)
Chances are that this was a reaction to the speech by Islamist Yusuf Qaradawi, who said that he hoped to be able to preach in Jerusalem soon as well. The same moderate, not-to-be-worried about Islamist whose bodyguards physically blocked Wael Ghonem - the celebrated Google executive and considered by the Western media the face of the revolution - from speaking.


(h/t DL from Sweden)

UPDATE: Martin Kramer tweets to me, and comments on Yaacov Lozowick's blog,  that he thinks it sounds more like "To the palace we head..." He further says that he has asked other Arabic speakers and they do not hear the words spoken here by the crowd. So this might not be correct. (It seems clear that Qaradawi did in fact say that he wants to go to Jerusalem, though.)