Arab Spring One year later

Hannah Allam mcclatchy Washington Bureau

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/01/19/136381/after-a-year-of-arab-upheaval.html

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CAIRO — Almost a year ago, senior leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood gathered in an apartment overlooking the massive protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square. It was the 18th day of the uprising that would bring down President Hosni Mubarak.
The elder statesmen of the long-outlawed Islamist group scanned the crowds below, making sure that their young activists weren't using religious chants or banners; they'd issued strict orders not to make the revolution seem Islamist in nature.
Satisfied, the leaders prayed together at sundown that Feb. 11, then they turned on the TV to see the vice president announcing that Mubarak had resigned after 30 years in power.
"That was the moment," recalled Mahmoud Ghozlan, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's governing council, closing his eyes to savor the memory.
As ecstatic protesters celebrated below, the men in the apartment instantly realized that, with Mubarak gone, the Muslim Brotherhood's decades of persecution were over, and the group finally had a clear path to political power. They sprang into action

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