Tension Rises at Egyptian Universities

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/world/middleeast/tension-rises-at-egyptian-universities.html

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Cairo — Clashes between the police and students in Egypt have intensified in recent weeks, partly shutting some of the country’s top universities and taking a heavy toll on demonstrators. At least two students have been killed and hundreds more injured or arrested since early November.

Since the start of the Arab Spring protests, in 2010, Egyptian universities have experienced their fair share of tumult. But recently the situation has reached a fever pitch. The ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July triggered student protests against the military-backed government, resulting in a crackdown by security forces.

The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an Egyptian group that monitors academic freedom, has denounced a “widespread violation of universities’ independence and the rights and freedoms of their students.”

Protests have taken place at universities across the country — most notably at the Islamic university of Al-Azhar and at Cairo University.

The protests were originally led by Islamist students who were against the military’s removal of Mr. Morsi and who demanded justice for hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators killed when the police cleared a sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Cairo in mid-August. But as the police crackdown has intensified, the protests have been joined by students with a broad range of political beliefs.

The role of security forces on campuses has long been a sensitive issue. When Hosni Mubarak was president, police and intelligence officers encroached on academic affairs, rigging student-union elections, vetting the content of conferences and events and interfering in academic appointments. Banning the police from university campuses was a key demand of student and faculty activists for years.

In 2011 a court banned the police from Egyptian universities after several professors at Cairo University sued the government. But last month, Egypt’s cabinet issued a decision allowing the security forces to return to campuses.

“I’m concerned that now there are strong and high voices which want again total control of the university by the police, which for me is disastrous,” said Mohamed Abul-Ghar, a professor involved in the 2011 case and a leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.

The Islamic university of Al-Azhar, which has its main campus in Cairo, has close to half a million students. The university, a historic center of learning in the Arab world, is where most preachers in the country are trained. Islamist groups, active on the campus and in the student union, blame the university’s leadership for supporting the ouster of Mr. Morsi. In late October the administration asked the police to enter the campus to quell protests, setting off a running battle.

The police have surrounded the university and fired tear gas inside; they have raided dormitories and classrooms. In clashes between students and the police, students threw rocks and Molotov cocktails; the police fired birdshot at them. A dozen students were given 17-year sentences on charges of rioting and trying to break into administrative buildings.

At Cairo University, Mohamed Reda, a freshman engineering student, was shot and killed on Nov. 28 in a clash with the police at the university gates. Mohamed Ibrahim, the interior minister, defended the police’s conduct, saying the students had blocked traffic and thrown stones at police officers. He also said Mr. Reda had been killed by fellow students.

Gaber Nassar, the university’s president, issued a statement condemning the security forces’ “direct attack” on the university. The college’s student union called the interior minister’s statement a “fabrication.” Clashes have escalated since Mr. Reda’s death.

Last week the engineering dean and three of his deputies resigned in protest. Sherif Mourad, the dean, said he had done so because he could not secure the safety of his students and because police tear gas attacks on the campus had disrupted the learning environment.

Egypt’s interim government recently passed a much-criticized law severely restricting the right to protest. Officials present unrest at universities as violent and as fomented by the Muslim Brotherhood. Students dispute that assertion.

Youssef Salheen, 21, a student in the faculty of languages and translation at Al-Azhar, is a member of the student union and of the group Students Against the Coup. He said that he was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and that the repression on the campus had led many students to join the protests.

“They accused us of setting fire to our dorms,” Mr. Salheen said. “That’s not logical. We are living there. Why would I set fire to my dorm where I live, and my school where I learn?”

At Cairo University, the crackdown against student demonstrators caused the protests to escalate as students in non-Islamist political factions joined in.

“The problem became bigger when non-Muslim Brotherhood students joined Muslim Brotherhood students in the demonstrations,” said Mr. Abul-Ghar, the Cairo University professor. “If the police keep away, probably things will calm down.”

Mr. Mourad, the former engineering dean, said both sides were to blame. “Students are initiating contact, and the police are behaving in a bad way,” he said. “This is a university. It is not a place to practice politics or violence.”

At Al-Azhar, students are calling for the university president to step down, for the release of detained students, for an investigation into the violence, and for the police to stay off the campus.

The university’s deputy president, Tawfiq Noureddin, has said that “vandals” will not be allowed to “tamper” with the university. On an Egyptian TV talk show last week, Mustafa Argawy, a dean of the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies at Al-Azhar, accused the protesting students of being paid by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Salheen, the al-Azhar student, said there was no use negotiating with the university administration and the interim government. “They’re accusing us of being terrorists,” he said: “We don’t kill, detain, or torture anybody, but they do.”