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Subscribe to RSSYouth activists gathered in front of the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo to dance the Harlem Shake in protest of Egypt's ruling party. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
CAIRO -- It is the latest Internet phenomenon that has the world laughing, but in Egypt the Harlem Shake has caught the imagination of revolutionaries who are using it as a new way to challenge the country's new Islamist rulers.
"It’s a funny way to protest how [the Muslim Brotherhood] have taken control of the country,” said law student Tarek Badr, 22, who was one of more than 100 thrusting their hips in front of the political movement’s Cairo headquarters on Thursday. "People won’t be silent. They will protest in all ways and this is a peaceful way."
One of his fellow white-clad protesters wore a Mickey Mouse head mask.
The unusual protest captured the attention of Egypt’s protest-weary press corps -- who almost outnumbered the gyrating protesters -– as well as a dozen stern-faced members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The movement's figurehead Mohammed Morsi was named president in June after the country's first democratic election in decades.
Organizer Noor al Mahalaawi, a 22-year-old engineering student, and three friends started a group that they have dubbed the "Satiric Revolutionary Struggle".
Charlene Gubash / NBC News
A protester wearing a Mickey Mouse mask dances the Harlem Shake in Cairo on Thursday.
The group intends to stage innovative weekly protests in front of the party headquarters, which will be posted on its increasingly popular Facebook page.
"People are very supportive,” Mahalaawi said. “It’s a change from violence to sarcasm and it’s peaceful. There has been enough blood, enough arrests, enough trials.”
He said the message to the party was that many Egyptians “do not like their way of rule… with human-rights violations every day."
After their Harlem Shake ended, participants took up the new revolutionary chant: "The people want the fall of the ‘Murshid’ [the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood]."
An impromptu conga line snaked through crowd shouting, "Leave, leave, leave.”
One onlooker, wearing red velvet devil horns, cheered them on. "The Muslim Brotherhood are the friends of the devil," explained Iman Abdul Munim, a women’s rights activist.
A handful of the Muslim Brotherhood's supporters somberly kept guard. They ushered journalists and onlookers off the thin strip of grass in front of the gated building.
"It’s not allowed to stand here," said Wala’a Mohamed Omar, a 35-year-old telecom employee, who heard about the event and came to protect party headquarters. "I have not been paid to do this, I came for the sake of God."
Move over, PSY and Carly Rae Jepsen: There's a new video craze that has exploded online. The Harlem Shake involves massive dance parties breaking out to a catchy beat seemingly out of nowhere. TODAY's Matt Lauer reports, and the TODAY anchors and staff show off their Shake skills.
He was visibly unamused by the Harlem Shake antics, but conceded: “Everybody is free to express themselves as they wish. We are all Egyptians and don’t differ. We respect our opinion and theirs. That is what the two-year revolution was all about.”
But in Egypt, the rise of Islamists to power has changed the fabric of society, now sharply split between fundamentalists, who favor the implementation of Islamic law, and moderates who want secular government.
Many young Egyptians feel their freedom is under siege and the Harlem Shake protest is one small way to reclaim it. "It is all about freedom of expression," insisted Mohamed Mostafa, a 19-year-old law student. "We are free people and we will do what we want."
Despite the end of the military state, Egypt’s police were accused in January of a return to Mubarak-era abuses after a video showed riot police stripping and beating a middle-aged man.
And a series of missteps by Morsi -- including a bid to grab sweeping powers even before the dust had settled on the country’s constitution – has brought protesters back onto the streets.
On Tuesday, a coalition of leftist and liberal parties known as the National Salvation Front announced it would boycott upcoming parliamentary elections, claiming Morsi is driving through an Islamist agenda and breaking a promise to govern on behalf of all Egyptians.
Anis Mili / Reuters
Students from Tunis Carthage Private University dance the Harlem Shake on Wednesday in Tunisia.
The Harlem Shake protest idea has also taken on elsewhere. In Tunisia, the Harlem Shake dance became a rallying cry for high school and university students after the Minister of Education Abdellatif Abid threatened to expel Tunisian high school students at a high school where it was performed and to sack complicit staff.
Tunisian Salafists - Islamic extremists - clashed with students on Wednesday as they tried to film the dance at a university.
Related:
Egypt's liberals ponder return to military rule
Meet Omar, the face of Egypt's 'unfinished revolution'
Egyptians fear decades of Muslim Brotherhood rule, warn Morsi is no friend of US
This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 6:56 AM EST
Leave a Comment:
Mohammed, tear down this veil! I try not to quote one of the worst presidents in the history of our great nation, but I must. (in my humble opinion)
Unfortunately he and his friends will all be dead in the next month or so...
What ever works. If it works.
Sorry, but the worst President in America's history just gave the Egypt's gov't (Muslim Brotherhood) $1.5 billion of our money! That will pay for a lot of veils and jack booted storm troopers to put down these demonstations!
yeah, I'm pretty sure Barack Hussein Obama will be glad to pin this one on Bush too, lol!
If we're going to trash a preznit for giving Egypt money, there's plenty of blame to go around for over a half century. This is not about O, despite what you people with very short memories insist.
Mark, Michelle made me do it! She likes Egyptian leather!!! You try to say no to that woman!
What you puppies don't (and may never) understand is that the US foreign policy is never really concerned about democracy. They care about stability and the ability to control their puppets.
Charlie is right, it has never been about "spreading democracy". Even a century ago it was about spreading capitalism, not democracy. General Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket" in the 1930's about our use of the US Military to force our socio-economic way of life down everyone elses throat while claiming we were "spreading democracy". It is all about being able to exploit and plunder the natural resources of a given area while using it's population as cheap labor and cannon fodder to fight any opposition that might arise during our conquest.
stonepipe2,
I guess you voted for Jimmy Carter?
Hummmmmmmmmm ... " Shake on..." Egypt will sink deeper regardless of all the "Shaking Going On ..."
those old enough to remember same type of protest occured in Iran, the protesters were soon wiped out.
Really, I didn't care for W. Bush, but how can you put this on him, he's not even mentioned in the article!!
LOL!!!!!!
Amazing how some of you "Stupid Party" people bring Obama into every article, even when there is no mention of him, or even a mention of President of the United States.
I like the Harlem Shake, I think it's cool and saw an impromptu one started a couple of weeks ago outside a shopping area, kind of like a "flash dance," kids having fun. Only thing is, I wish they would have called it the "Harlem Shuffle."
moshuluu
its amazing how you name call and use bullying to persuade your audience....you might as well be the MBH right hand man.....
I really need to ask you, why cant you use an educated argument? Why do you need to show how volatile you can be towards another of a different opinion? Why is it that when defending Obama, you become hate filled and nasty? Please ask yourself how you got to this point....
Roadlesstraveled, moshuluu and his ilk are the ones who believe that anyone who is against the community organizer and his policies MUST be a racist, and therefore MUST be wrong.
Road, he's just getting iritated from the Trolls so let him go. It's time the Trolls got some.
Sorry, but it was 1.3 billion. I see you didn't list the 3 billion we gave Israel too.
Either you never studied U.S. History, or never took a civics class, or you are just very politically biased.
The President doesn't not decide what nations get as far as money and aid. That responsibility lies with Congress.
Furthermore, we have been doing this since the 70's. It s called the Camp David Accords.
What's worse, is that at least 15 others are ignorant to how long we have been giving this region (Eqypt and Israel) financial and military support, and that the President doesn't cut them personal checks.
I see we can't shake ourselves from moshuluu, laughingcat, and the other koolaid drinkers/trolls that inhabit this site. None are capable of defending the current blunderer-in-chief, but are more than capable of spouting his excuses for policy failures, lol!
NYMike, please don't confuse them with facts. It makes their tiny little closed-minded brains hurt. Much easier to hate and carp than be informed.
gm George! Rush Limbaugh refers to these libbies as 'low information voters', an apt name for them, eh? Mitt Romney called them the 47%ers and he was right, there is way they can be reasoned with, especially when obama keeps giving them free stuff!
Mohammed, tear down this veil!
I know you think you're being clever, but you're not. Fail, loser.
Actually, the $1.5 billion is required by law, which is what gets passed by Congress. It is given to Egypt as part of the peace treaty with Israel and is proportionally tied to the aid that Israel gets.
But I would guess that someone who calls Obama "the worst President in America's history" couldn't really be expected to know that.
It's not hate. It's contempt. There is a difference.
That's not hard to answer, either. We got to this point when being a liberal and caring about your neighborhood, your country and your fellow Americans is equated to being a Marxist and a Kenyan worshipper. If you say that you believe that Obama is doing a good job, you are told that you worship him as a Messiah.
We got to this point because even the so-called intelligentsia on your side remain silent and let the loonies spew forth filth. There is a difference. The left has loonies, too, but we call them out on it. They don't control our dialogue, and we see them as an embarrassment, not as a way to corral more voters.
Have you even bothered to read what some of your side says? Just two days ago, when having a discussion with a gun advocate, I was liberally referred to as a "dillhole", constantly called a coward and yellow.
Do you seriously need to ask this question?
Islam is going to have to adjust to the idea of free speech. It is good to see this awakening.
I really feel for the young people in Muslim countries.
Just imagine, an entire theocracy of oppression holding you back.
Well, the repulsive Muslim Brotherhood, in this case, will probably try to kill these kids, but they can't kill them all.
I have a feeling their head is going to become unattached to the rest of their body in due time.
Byron Raum,
Really? Naive much? They'll adjust alright. They'll adjust these young people's heads right off their Harlem Shaking bodies. What are you, 12 years old?
Brotherhood phylosophy:
"You are free to say, do and feel any way you choose, as long as it's the same way we do..."
"Reistance is futile, you will be assimilated."
that barry is really into harlem shake...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTEtbuR0VZ8
If people did a little bit of research on the Harlem Shake. They might think twice about having the nuns at the convent or a group of 5 year olds perform it.
Dave, you hurt my feelings.
"The Muslim Brotherhood are the friends of the devil," explained Iman Abdul Munim, a women’s rights activist."
This is an understatement.
Muslim Bloodhounds are devils themselves. Even Allah would hate them.
What would really be revolutionary is to see a picture of a woman in one of these demonstrations!!!
It would be revolutionary indeed as women at these gatherings tend to be molested. Egyptians need to take baby steps towards democracy. First the men need to feel liberated before they'll liberate the women.
Unfortunately a woman would be more likely to be stoned or arrested on the spot.
Hopefully change will come in the area. The young will bring it. We as a people brought change to our country in things like ending slavery, bringing about the right of women to vote, civils rights.
Life is all about change. Hopefully the young in the middle east and other areas will see that and come to want the change for their own peoples as well.
It took Amarica how long to Liberate women here and they truly aren't liberated yet.
6dogs, I am a woman. Please tell me how I'm not liberated.
Janine burn your bra and prove your liberated...oh yeah...take it off before you torch it...she might be blonde...
Thank you Bob, but I don't need to burn my bra to prove I'm liberated.
And YES, I am blonde.
I see 6dogs never responded to my request.
Janine, wasn't it just it just last month that women in military are accepted to equal jobs. Most of that still hasn't even taken full effect yet? You honestly feel that woman are fully to this day treated equal? I think we have made a lot of progress but still have ways to go.
"After their Harlem Shake ended, participants took up the new revolutionary chant: "The people want the fall of the ‘Murshid’ [the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood].""
All sane Egyptians (army, females, minority tribes and Christians) should all join hands and throw out the hating and killing seventh century desert mindsert Muslim Bloodhounds.
Kick them all out without much delay.
"Much ado about nothing"
Next, the cops there will be doing the Egypt shake down and throwing them all in the backs of vans for a ride into the deep desert.
Yup, the Muslim Brotherhood's version of the Taliban will be very effective putting down these kid's dancing protests I'm afraid. And unfortunately it will be the money that Obama gave them on behalf of the USA that will fund the coming shakedown from these extremists!
Pride, how do you know it's not money and weaponry that W gave the Egyptians? Or Clinton? Or GHWB? Or Reagan? Don't let your myopia blind you to realpolitik.
laughingcat, coincidentally that money Obama gave Egypt was not long after the Benghazi Embassy attack, you know... the one in which we stood by and watched 4 Americans die all because our administration claimed it was just a response to a stupid 15 minute video!!
Can't blame that one on Bush Clinton, or Reagan! And ironically, Obama made no qualifications how the Muslim Brotherhood was to use that money he gave them!
Where's the outrage when all those Marines were killed in Beirut under Reagan's watch? Or, since it happened more than a month ago, is it 'old news'? Here's some news. We've been handing out trillions, for decades, by administrations from BOTH pathetic parties to countries that usually end up hating us. And anybody that thinks ANY President simply writes a check should be banned from voting on purely minimal i.q. grounds.
I have to agree with you on the marines getting killed in Beirut,never could understand why that was swept under the rug and I was a Reagan man.All the money is doing is buying time for something that is going to come sooner or later,just like one of the terrorist said,you got the watches and we got the time.
Pride and joy is stuck on stupid. He can't see beyond his Party lines feed him by his handlers
Pride, this goes so far beyond Benghazi that I must say you really don't know much about foreign policy, or realpolitik, or much of anything else. Benghazi is NOTHING compared to the whitewash of the hundreds of Marines who died under Reagan's watch, or even the thousands who died while W and the neocons lied about Iraq. I'm sure you were outraged at going to war on a lie that directly caused the death of thousands of American troops. I'm sure you were outraged at the disappearance of about <a href="">12 BILLION dollars in cash in Iraq that no one could account for.</a> I'm sure you're outraged that the rocket launchers being aimed at our troops in Afghanistan came from our CIA back when the Pakistanis were "the enemy of our enemy" Russia.
Pride, since it won't allow me to embed a link, go to the Guardian, Feb 8, 2007. $12 BILLION DOLLARS in hard cash vanished into thin air in the Iraq morass. Egypt is small potatoes.
The Egyptian people revolted and in a free election placed the Muslim Brotherhood in power. A cilil war is looming and this time it will be very violent and the muslim brotherhood will come out in ruthless force. Islam is religion and a way of life that controls all behavior and speech. Islam does not compromise nor will they assimilate as immigrants. This is a fact that western multiculturalists refuse to acknowledge. Europe will experience islam very shortly. With Europe's low birthrate of 1 child per family, islam will be the majority by 2050 and they can say goodbye to their constitutions and everything else including drugs and homosexuality.
Heh, methinks the Egyptian people elected Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood a little bit like the Hungarians elected the Communists in 1947.
mikeyknows,
"Islam is religion and a way of life that controls all behavior and speech."
Much like Orthodox Judaism.
... or as the Americans elected the Socialists in 2008/2012.
by the way, the Hungarians got rid of the Communists but it took a while. Our administration is duplicating what those Communists did in '47, nationalizing industries one by one.
LOL.... Another hater, lost two elections to two sets of idiots, and bitter ever since. Good for you.
I'm singling you out simply as another idiot who has to throw your ignorance fed to you by Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Van Susteren out there about our President. "A Socialists," how ignorant of you!!!
@moshuluu - I couldn't agree with you more about all these ignorant posters.
Eva, for us allegedly being under socialism, the stock markets sure are going great, corporate profits are up, and the banksters still have free rein to loot our pockets. You obviously do NOT know what "socialism" is.
hey laughing. get informed. the truth will set you free. the only reason the stockmarket is doing good is because bernanke has manipulated interest rates so that investors are being forced to move into the stock market to get any return on their money. buy a 6 month c.d. and your return on it woont even pay the tax. corp profits are up because they are not spending. they arent growing either. we are under socialism. the government is phucking up the marketplace horribly. We had a chance to get the banksters but the occupy movement screwed that up. they were an obama created group. bank ceos like jamie dimond and the citi ceo should have been sent to jail,instead they all got bonuses. yep they all paid off their buddies barak and the dnc. do the research yourself and see the truth. quit drinking the kool aid
75th - Highly informed since the late 50s. Haven't had koolaid since about 1965. As for socialism, examples of this in American life include the interstate highway system, public water works and sewers, public roads and utilities, public parks, and the VA. Then we can include the fire and police departments and other first responders that we all pay for but only use as we need. I suppose you're against all of these things.
Don't see how OWS "screwed up" a chance to get the banksters. Any time the DOJ wants to investigate it can. As I recall, the vast majority of the bankster bonuses were awarded under TARP in November and December 2008 when W was still in charge. And I agree that O has allowed the banksters to perpetuate their scam. That's why I'm on record for months that we should tax the $700 trillion HST/derivatives bankster casino game a few cents on each dollar traded. That would rein them in AND provide plenty of money so we wouldn't have to cut services or raise taxes on people and small businesses.
Exactly 75th! You, I and others know the reason for the stock market jump, but there's no convincing the liberal trolls of that truth.
Unemployment is at 8%, income levels have dropped the most in 20 years and the consequences of that is that taxes taken in have also plummeted... yet obama keeps spending and keeps telling his acolytes that 'the middle class is doing just fine'! What a joke this President is and his trolls just keep trolling...
So you're both saying this is ENTIRELY O and has never been done before him? You people are just too young to remember how long this game has been happening. Unemployment would be lower except that O has cut the number of Fed employees, not kept them on or added more. I'm for abolishing the DHS/TSA which would also add to the unemployment, but would be a favor to the American public since it's a bloated, inefficient, and corrupt Fed bureaucracy given to us by W and Chertoff. Taxes taken in have plummeted because of things called tax cuts and tax breaks. I am one of the last of the Eisenhower Republicans, and we had 90% top bracket which also happened to coincide with the greatest economic expansion in US history. These are historical facts from someone who's been around too long to care about "koolaid" or your accusations of being a "troll." I'm more conservative than any of you. I just see how the game's been played by the DC class since before you were born.
There is no "middle class" anymore. It's just that 1 or 2 percent and the rest of us.
A sense of humor might just save our species. Certainly it makes the absurdities of life livable.
I'd agree, however, humor can be offensive if it is used improperly. Humor can perpetuate hatred under the guise of "it's just a joke."
I think its great! It's super funny becasue you wouldn't expect anyone in the Middle East to have a sense of humor with all the stuff we've been spoon fed from the media!
People who support theocracy hate nothing more than being laughed at.
I hope all of the Islamic theocracies evolve into liberty loving republics. But admittedly, even our own country (USA) has some evolving left to do.
Steve, I want you to be the next Pope. Just because there's not a chance in Hell they'll vote you in has nothing to do with it.
Beautiful.
In what world is that a Mickey Mouse mask? Disneyland Cairo?
Morsi and the Islamists are "con las terroristas".
So when will Pat Robertson speak out against the Harlem Shake?
When he appears in public with the Brotherhood.
Anyone else have the theme song to "Footlose" going through their heads?
Could be a sequel.
Seriously though, good for them! Love it!
snoopy and the peanuts gang have been doing this shake since the 60's... nothing new here, just another remake
The Harlem Shake? This should show all the Muslim haters that Muslims are human, too. They have a sense of humour like anyone else. I particularly like that guy in the Mickey Mouse mask, though. He's a man after my own heart. :)
Most Americans would say, but of course they wouldn't admit it except behind closed doors, but these people (Egyptians), have the wrong genetics and skin color to be called Humans.
maybe if you had seen the barbarism that they use 1st hand you would feel as i do. can you show me one country where muslims live peacefully with their neighbors. no you cannot. not even in the u.s.
Push for change in Egypt? What change? Obama fixed everything over there! They just don't know what they want! Maybe they just need another speech from our world savior! (sarcasm)
Can boehner please lead congress in a harlem shake and get this budget passed !
Boehner has tried 3 times. Seems the Senate can't decide what they have to do to vote.
We love this here in the US because everything we do is about garnering attention & seeking limelight
It's all fun and games until one of them goes boom!
... dance as the bullets whiz past you?
And we're propping egypt up with billions of obama bucks?
This country is sooooooo broken...
It's OK we're almost there. Soon all of this will be irrelevant.
Obama just sent tanks and jets to the Islamic Brotherhood. And he's taking our guns?!
Obama is taking away all the guns? Since when?
Oh, that's sarcasm. Simply marvelous!
No, he's trying to take everything but bolt action and other early 1900s era firearms (like around WWI) from law abiding Americans. But he's sending late 1900s era JET FIGHTERS to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Surely you get that saying a bolt action rifle is all that a law abiding American citizen is trustworthy enough to own is RIDICULOUS when he's trusting the Muslim Brotherhood with weapons capable of destroying tanks, ships, buildings, and hundreds or even thousands of people at a time?
Maybe you don't get that. Maybe you have a very low IQ and you can't grasp it. If that's the case, please forgive me, but leave this site and go to the Disney website.
Anyone who was alive earlier this century and is honest is well aware that life in America was much, much better for all of us when Bush was President than Obama.
yep. when bush was in office i paid 2,25 a gallon for diesel. today its 4.38 a gallon.
One needs only to open their eyes to see that this is true! The Commerce Dept just reported that incomes in the USA dropped by the most in 20 years under Obama's watch! That means the Tax revenues also dropped, yet Obama continues to spend. (RobinH in an earlier post here mentioned this information, I just verified it.)
F'ing assinine!
I fear for these young protesters lives, at the same time I appreciate their sense of humor, and hope and pray for their safety and success.