Al Azhar Sheikh to speak to Tahrir crowd

The Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb of Al Azhar agreed during a meeting on Wednesday with representatives of various revolutionary youth movements and political parties on keeping the protests peaceful during the first anniversary celebrations of the January 25 Revolution to avoid any clashes with the security forces, according to Egypt’s state TV website. It also agreed that al-Tayyeb will deliver a statement from Tahrir Square on 25 January to demand the rapid transfer of power to civilians and speedy trials for all those involved in killing protestors during the revolution, as well as emphasize that Egypt is a civil state and should remain so and demand equality, freedom of opinion and the independence of the judiciary. Moreover, the meeting’s attendees demanded that Al-Azhar be involved in drafting the new constitution, Middle East News Agency (MENA) said. It added that attendees agreed to have an operations room inside Al-Azhar on January 25, to be a link between the young people and movements in Tahrir Square and Al-Azhar. This is intended to help preserve the peaceful nature of the protests. For his part, Kefaya member Mohamed Abdel Aziz said, in a press conference after the meeting that everyone agrees not to sabotage the revolution. He also denounced accusing the revolutionaries of being thugs and demanded the speedy transfer of power to a civilian government and the achievement of the goals of the revolution