the sixth floor...الدور السادس: Every Revolution and You are Well (كل ثورة وانت طيب)

Me and some of the guys on the roof

I spent the anniversary of the revolution where I dreamed of spending the revolution itself one year ago--atop a building on Tahrir Square. It was the prefect place to watch as tens of thousands of Egyptians thronged to the square to commemorate the protests that shook the country last January. There were many of the same chants and demands from the revolution and the protests that followed in the subsequent months--down with military rule, cleanse the judiciary and the media, retribution for the martyrs. In many ways, it felt like just another Tahrir protest which are routinely accompanied by people's personal recollections of the 18 day revolution an of which there was no shortage today.

This was the first public event since the Islamist-dominated parliament was sworn in two days ago, and the majority party reveled in its popular mandate. The Muslim Brotherhood seemed to dominate the square--its supporters arrived first instead of marching from various neighborhoods as did many other groups and its stage was the biggest and loudest--but as far as I could hear they were not demanding Islamic law but instead were making more widely-accepted demands like the transfer of power to civilians.

Chants from the square quieted down around midnight, but there are still people out there and likely will be for a while. It waits to be seen how the Muslim Brotherhood will interact with Tahrir politics now that they have parliamentary authority. It's also unclear how Tahrir will commemorate the revolution--will there be a sit-in for 18 days? And how will all the major battles that have occurred in the past year be remembered? Hopefully they will be as peaceful as today was.