[48] During his presidency, Anwar Sadat neglected the modernisation of Egypt in contrast to his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and his cronyism cost the country infrastructure industries which could generate new jobs.

[50] Bashar al-Assad's rise to power in Syria in June 2000, after the death of his father Hafez, sparked debate in the Egyptian press about the prospects for a similar scenario in Cairo.

[51] During the years after Mubarak's 2005 re-election, several left- and right-wing (primarily unofficial) political groups expressed opposition to the inheritance of power, demanded reforms and asked for a multi-candidate election.

[59] This led to the imprisonment of activists without trial,[60] illegal, undocumented and hidden detention facilities[61] and the rejection of university, mosque and newspaper staff based on their political affiliation.

[75] Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, led a 2010 rally in Alexandria against police abuse, and visited Saeed's family to offer condolences.

[98] According to The Washington Post, "The Jasmine Revolution [...] should serve as a stark warning to Arab leaders – beginning with Egypt's 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak – that their refusal to allow more economic and political opportunity is dangerous and untenable.

[107] Public figures, including novelist Alaa Al Aswany, writer Belal Fadl and actors Amr Waked and Khaled Aboul Naga, announced that they would participate.

[109][110] In a video blog posted a week before National Police Day,[111] she urged the Egyptian people to join her on 25 January in Tahrir Square to bring down the Mubarak regime.

[126][127] 6 March: From the Nasr City headquarters, protesters acquired evidence of mass surveillance and vote-rigging, noting rooms full of videotapes, piles of shredded and burned documents and cells in which activists recounted their experiences of detention and torture.

8 April ("Cleansing Friday"): Tens of thousands of demonstrators again filled Tahrir Square, criticizing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for not following through on their demands: the resignation of remaining regime figures and the removal of Egypt's public prosecutor, due to the slow pace of investigations of corrupt former officials.

[136] 8 July ("Friday of Determination"): Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Suez, Alexandria and Tahrir Square, demanding immediate reform and swifter prosecution of former officials from the ousted government.

23 July: Thousands of protesters attempted to march to the defence ministry after a speech by Muhammad Tantawi commemorating the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but are met with counter-insurgents with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails.

[147] 23 January 2012: Democratically elected representatives of the People's Assembly met for the first time since Egypt's revolution, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces gave them legislative authority.

[164] 12 June: When the Egyptian parliament met to vote for members of a constitutional assembly dozens of secular MPs walked out, accusing Islamist parties of trying to dominate the panel.

[170] 14 June: The Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a law passed by Parliament in May, banning former regime figures from running for office, was unconstitutional; this ended a threat to Ahmed Shafik's candidacy for president during Egypt's 2012 presidential election.

[214][215] Morsi's declaration was criticised by Constitution Party leader Mohamed ElBaradei (who said that he had "usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh"),[216] and led to violent protests throughout the country.

[220] In April 2013 a youth group was created opposing Morsi and attempting to collect 22 million signatures by 30 June 2013 (the first anniversary of his presidency) on a petition demanding early presidential elections.

[230] On 26 March 2014, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, who at this time was in control of the country, resigned from the military, announcing he would stand as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election.

In order for the current parliament in both houses to be able to discuss these constitutional amendments and the legislative amendments linked to it for laws that complement the constitution and to ensure the participation of all the political forces in these discussions, I demand parliament to adhere to the word of the judiciary and its verdicts concerning the latest cases which have been legally challenged.Opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), repeated their demand that Mubarak resign; after the protests turned violent, the MB said that it was time for military intervention.

The SCAF appointed Essam Sharaf, a former transportation minister and a vocal critic of the regime following his resignation after the 2006 Qalyoub rail accident, to replace Shafik and form a new government.

[331] Mubarak's resignation was followed by a series of arrests of, and travel bans on, high-profile figures on charges of causing the deaths of 300–500 demonstrators, injuring 5,000 more, embezzlement, profiteering, money laundering and human rights abuses.

Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Syria witnessed major protests, and minor demonstrations occurred in Iraq, Kuwait, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia[citation needed] and Sudan.

Although the cooperative, inter-faith revolution was no guarantee that partisan politics would not re-emerge in its wake, its success represented a change from the intellectual stagnation (created by decades of repression) which pitted modernity and Islamism against one another.

Islamists and secularists are faced with new opportunities for dialogue on subjects such as the role of Islam and Sharia in society, freedom of speech and the impact of secularism on a predominantly Muslim population.

The diversity of the protesters in Tahrir Square was visible in the women who participated; many wore head scarves and other signs of religious conservatism, while others felt free to kiss a friend or smoke a cigarette in public.

[359] The Egyptian Armed Forces initially enjoyed a better public reputation than the police did; the former was seen as a professional body protecting the country, and the latter was accused of systemic corruption and lawless violence.

[370] On 9 October the Egyptian military crushed protesters under armed personnel carriers and shot live ammunition at a demonstration in front of the Maspero television building, killing at least 24.

Bloggers and citizen journalists used Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and other media tools to report on the strike, alert their networks about police activity, organize legal protection and draw attention to their efforts.

Since 25 January 2011, videos (including those of a badly beaten Khaled Said, disproving police claims that he had choked to death), tweets and Facebook comments have kept the world abreast of the situation in Egypt.

A widely circulated pamphlet by an anonymous activist group titled "How to Protest Intelligently" (Arabic: كيف للاحتجاج بذكاء؟), asked readers "not to use Twitter or Facebook or other websites because they are all being monitored by the Ministry of the Interior".