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Al-Azhar students stage a demonstration to denounce what they described as the military coup - Nayrouz Talaat/Aswat Masriya
By Nayrouz Talaat
Cairo's Al-Azhar University students have said that they will continue their sit-ins inside the university for many reasons, including the total negligence of the university's president and the use of violence against them.
Hussein Hozaien told Aswat Masriya that the demonstrations were organized by students who are about 22 years old or even younger from Al-Azhar high schools.
He added that the protesters' aim was to denounce the arrest of more than 150 of their colleagues and the military and police forces' violence against them.
Hozaein, 20, university student of translation, said that he does not belong to any political parties, but he is interested in moderate Islamic values.
The negligence of the university's president towards the violence practiced on the students is what inspired the angry demonstrators, said Youssef El-Salhein, who majors in Islamic Studies, pointing to a recent incident of mass food poisoning caused by campus meals.
El Salhein, who belongs to the movement "Students against the Coup" said that all of Egypt's universities are involved in the movement against the "bloody military coup".
"We, at Al-Azhar University, totally condemn the role of Al-Azhar Sheikh in supporting the military coup," added el-Salhein.
"I saw snipers being used by police forces on campus to shoot protesters during Al-Mansa violence," the student added.
Security forces fired teargas to disperse students who were gathered to denounce “the military coup” on Monday.
The university guards observed but did not intervene, said Abdel Latif Abdul Hakeem, a graduate of Al-Azhar and a supporter of ousted president Mohamed Mursi.
"The demonstration lasted only for 30 minutes outside the university, then we returned to the university," explained El-Salhein.
The protesters blocked the Nasr Road yesterday and marched outside of the university, chanting slogans against the police and army and provoking the deployed forces.
Security forces said that they were committed to using teargas only to avoid violent consequences.