If you're interested: http://riyada.hadithuna.com/tantawis-trick/ >> gives some more evidence on how the decision was pre-planned, with zero scholarly consensus.

Great post, Sana. I've been writing about my own disgust with the Egyptian conspiracy theory/siege mentality BS on my own blog (brownfolks.blogspot.com), and I'm glad you've approached it from this angle. When the oppressors are white men, we have no problem calling them out, and rightfully so...
but when the oppressors are our leaders with the same religion and skin color as us, we back away from denouncing them. We acknowledge crime and corruption in every political and religious institution but our own, for we assume to be immaculate. I think a lot of it is attributable to the post-9/11 knee-jerk, defensive reaction we Arabs and Muslims have whenever we are up against Islamophobia and anti-Arab or -Middle Eastern sentiment... but let's get real here. Apologizing for Mubarak as some sort of bulwark against imperialism is pretty ludicrous when there's no bigger tool of imperialism in the region than he.

The fatwas coming out of al-Azhar just get more and more idiotic by the day. And to think some commentators believe this regime is a "secular" one? While it's not directly related to this matter, I also should mention that Mubarak's monopoly on Egypt's religious institutions extends beyond the Islamic ones. Baba Shenouda, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, is also very loudly pro-Mubarak, father and son (no puns intended).

Great post. Can you please provide the link to the article?

Thanks for posting this, Will. I am not surprised he said that, given that this guy regularly schmoozes in Washington and leads an elitist opposition from exile.