The afterglow has faded.

• Author: Kouddous, Sharif Abdel
• Position: EGYPT

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ON THE EVENING OF October 10, a funeral procession of more than 20,000 people marched down Ramses Street, a main thoroughfare in downtown Cairo, loudly calling for the end to military rule in Egypt. Chants of "Down with the Marshal" echoed in the night sky, in reference to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto ruler of the country following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. On their shoulders they carried the coffins of several Coptic Christians killed a day earlier by the Egyptian army. Military police backed by plainclothes thugs had attacked a peaceful demonstration with live ammunition and by driving armored personnel carriers at high speeds into the crowd in a shocking display of wanton violence. In total, at least twenty-six people were killed and more than 300 wounded.

The incident was the bloodiest act of repression by the Egyptian army since it took the reins of power on February 11, and it pulled into sharp focus a struggle that has been steadily growing against the ruling military junta in post-Mubarak Egypt.

"It makes the battle easier when your enemy shows its real face," says Mona Self, twenty-five, a rights activist and a founding member of the No to Military Trials of Civilians campaign. "The horrible part about it is that it gets more bloody, and the confrontation with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces gets more real."

During the eighteen-day uprising that ousted Mubarak, the army enjoyed widespread praise as "the protector of the revolution" and was applauded for not opening fire on protesters--a dubious accolade in and of itself. Chants of "The people, the army, one hand" were ubiquitous in Tahrir Square. In the days and weeks that followed, any criticism of the military generally, or the Supreme Council in particular, was widely denounced as heresy. But the afterglow has since faded away, in large part due to the military council's repressive policies, which have been met with heavy resistance by revolutionary forces in their ongoing struggle to overthrow the regime.

One of the most striking examples of the turning of the tide of public opinion is the grassroots campaign against the Supreme Council's widespread use of military trials. Over the past eight months, nearly 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts--more than the total number during Mubarak's thirty-year reign. According to Human Rights Watch...