Charles
tory in the last few weeks. The nationwide anti-government demonstrations were certainly a massive show of people power. But were the crowds really as large as reported, and how would you try to find out?
Protesters against the government of Islamist Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president, took to the streets of Cairo and beyond in huge numbers, before the army then removed the leader on 3 July.
It has been claimed that 30 million people took to the streets.
"I think that's a gross exaggeration," says Middle East correspondent Wyre Davies, from Cairo.
"It doesn't feel any bigger than it did in 2011 when we had the revolution. About half a million people can fit in Tahrir Square. So it's impossible to say when there's a big protest in Tahrir Square, that there are millions of people there.
"I think nationwide there were millions of people this time protesting against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, but nothing like the 30 or 40 million people some people quoted. That's 45% of the population - that's impossible; there are too many young people in Egypt for the maths to work.
On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 8:48 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 33 million
>> people changing the government twice in this short a period of time is
>> direct democracy, not republicanism or representative govt. That's
>> extraordinary. That's what a democrat focuses on in this situation.
>> Not the result of the last election. An election is republicanism.
>> 33 million people organized, peaceful and making unified demands !!!!
>
>
> Charles, did you bother to look at the links I posted earlier, in this
> thread, in direct response to a query by you, about how the "33 million"
> figure is laughable nonsense? Here they are again:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23312656
> http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/resources/commentary-and-analysis/6574-30-june-anti-morsi-crowd-figures-just-dont-add-up
>
> As for the "22 million" in your next post, as the Wall Street Journal says,
> the numbers "are impossible to verify, but were widely reported."
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324425204578601700051224658.html
>
> --
> "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
> lytlað."
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