Video: Lead Cairo Protester in US, Advising Occupy Wall Street

The protests in Egypt that led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak were made possible, in large part, by the actions of young, tech-saavy activists who organized and coordinated the facebook and twitter revolution. The two men given the bulk of the credit are Google regional manager for Africa, Wael Ghonim and a man named Ahmed Maher. In Cairo, on the day Mubarak's ouster was assured, Ghonim took to the stage at Tahrir Square to speak to the masses. However, the Muslim Brotherhood element would have none of it. Ghonim was forced off the stage and the microphone was given to the Brotherhood's top sheikh, Youssef al-Qaradawi.

Now, Ahmed Maher apparently wants to replicate what went down in Egypt by working with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters in Washington, DC and New York City. Maher's influence might help to explain the similarities between the makeup of the protests. Tent cities are certainly a common denominator. The reliance on facebook and twitter is another one.

Via Danger Room:

One of the key activists behind Egypt’s “Facebook Revolution” is now giving advice to a new group of protesters: the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The protesters in New York’s Zuccotti Park — and their offshoots around the country — often cite the mass demonstrations earlier this year in Cairo’s Tahrir Square as their inspiration. So maybe it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Ahmed Maher, one of the leading figures in those Egyptian protests, has been corresponding for weeks with the Occupy Wall Streeters, whom he calls “our brothers.”

Maher is one of the founders of the April 6 Youth, which used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to galvanize Egyptians against President Hosni Mubarak. Recently, however, his attention has turned toward America, where he’s been chatting online with Occupy activists. Those conversations center around practical advice from a successful Egyptian revolutionary. Usually, they occur through Facebook. On Tuesday, for the first time, they happened face to face.

“We talk on the internet about what happened in Egypt, about our structure, about our organization, how to organize a flash mob, how to organize a sit-in,” Maher tells Danger Room, and “how to be non-violent with police.”

Here is video of Maher via Think Progress, a George Soros entity.



h/t Shoebat