Thousands of Egyptian students have demonstrated against the government in what is being called the largest protest in Egypt to date.

The students – mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood movement – marched at five campuses in Cairo and the Nile Delta.

Hundreds of police prevented them from taking their protests outside university gates onto the streets.

Islamists, liberals and nationalists want an end to Egypt’s 24-year-old state of emergency.

They also called for an end to the presidency of Hosni Mubarak.

Mr Mubarak has been the country’s leader since 1981. He is hoping to win a fifth term in office in elections in September – for the first time in a multi-candidate poll.

The Muslim Brotherhood is considered by many to be a terror organization, although there really are substantial questions as to the extent of there involvement in terror activity. When placed alongside the Mubarak regime, they come out as possibly the lesser of two evils. They are becoming more popular in Egypt for their stance against Mubarak. Of course, one of their grievances against the government is that it is to soft on Israel and the “Zionists,” so make of that what you will.

HRW is calling on the government to release two student bothers being held:

(Washington, April 4, 2005) ???????? The Egyptian authorities should promptly release or bring charges against two brothers taken from their home by state security officers in a pre-dawn raid this morning, Human Rights Watch said today. In letters to Minister of Interior Habib al-Adli and Public Prosecutor Maher Abd al-Wahad, Human Rights Watch called on the government to inform the brothers’ family of their whereabouts without further delay, and to permit them access to legal counsel if they are undergoing interrogation.

State Security Investigations (SSI) officials took university students Abul Futuh Tahsin Abul Futuh, 21, and Tahsin Tahsin Abul Futuh, 23, into custody after raiding their home in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City at around 4 a.m. this morning. According to family members, four SSI officers searched the house and confiscated papers and a computer before taking the two brothers, saying it was a “standard security procedure” and that the two would be back “in two hours.” The authorities have not returned them or provided information as to their whereabouts.

“These kinds of arrests have become typical for the SSI, which routinely subjects persons to torture and ill-treatment during questioning,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “Time after time, families are told that their father or son will be back in a few hours, and then hear nothing for weeks and sometimes months.”

Family members told Human Rights Watch that the two brothers have attended a Nasr City mosque whose imam was arrested several days ago, but that neither was involved in any political activities. They said that some nine other persons associated with the mosque have also been detained in the Nasr City area in recent days.

Mubarak is turning into a Middle East Pinochet. However, hopes that he would step aside are premature and not really realistic. The US is talking greater economic cooperation and enlisting Egypt’s assistance in the Middle East peace initiative.