Mohamed Ali, a 45-year-old businessman currently taking up residence in Spain, originally began posting videos online in early September. In these videos, he frequently accuses current President of Egypt Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and top military officials of corruption. He has since even made claims of having access to "insider information about the Egyptian military's mishandling of state funds". Mr. Ali's popularity seemed to have skyrocketed during the month of September, have prompted growing anger "among Egyptians, culminating in the protests" over the late September weekend. Many Egyptians regard Ali to the likeness of a whistleblower, as his claims would seem credible due to his past "familiarity with the armed forces' building projects through his work with them".
Mr. Ali has made accusations directly towards President Sisi, exposing that the President has been "squandering state funds to build presidential palaces and villas...the projects being undertaken as favors to generals in his close circle". Mr. Sisi himself has made a statement against these allegations, calling them slanderous lies.
Egypt as of late has been subjected to various economic pressures. Official state figures from July of this year showed that about 32.5% of Egyptians were living in poverty. Mr. Ali's videos have only added fuel to the growing fire in the hearts of many Egyptians, and thus many "small-scale protests [have] broke out in and around Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and other cities, breaking a barrier of fear that was built during Mr. Sisi's years in power". Consequently, hundreds of arrests were made after protesters took the streets. The people will not take corruption sitting down, and this demonstration showed protesters were willing to take their anger to the streets to have their voice be heard.
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Hundreds of protesters filled Tahrir Square on Friday
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Bibliography:
Saba, Joana. “Mohamed Ali: The Self-Exiled Egyptian Sparking
Protests at Home.” BBC News, BBC, 24 Sept. 2019,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49800212.
