Egypt: Parliament on Fire · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian bloggers are in a daze, after the country's iconic Parliament Building, went up in flames earlier today. And while an official reason has yet to be announced for the cause of the fire in the 19th century palace, which houses the Shura (consultative) council, bloggers are seething – though not lost for words.
News portal Horytna [Ar] provided readers with up to the minute developments on the fire-fighting operation, with witness reports from the site and the Muslim Brotherhood website Ikhwan Online posts a complete album of the building burning.
Bakri Hassan, describes the fire as an Egyptian scandal and calls for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign. He writes:
رمز مصر يحترق
الان يحترق رمز مصر
تابعوا احدث فضائح مصر المدوية
الدولة المصرية عاجزة حتي الان عن  السيطرة علي حرق رمزها
وصلنا الي النهاية سيادة الرئيس
سيدي الرئيس استقيل قبل ان تحرق البلد كلها وليس رمزها فقط
تابع علي الفضائيات والمواقع حريق مصر
Egypt's icon is on fire
Right now, Egypt's symbol is burning down
Follow the news of Egypt's scandal
The Egyptian state is not able to control the fire in its symbol
This is the end of the road Mr President
Please resign before you burn the entire country and not only its symbol
Follow news of Egypt's fire on satellite channels and the Internet
And Amr Ezzat charges that Egyptian authorities have banned newspaper Al Baleed from publishing its second edition because of its coverage of the fire. According to the blogger the daily newspaper's headlines said that important documents were lost in the fire.
Meanwhile, Tahyyes feels not enough was done to control the fire.
رياح ايه اللي بيتكلموا عليها؟
هي فين الرياح دي؟ طب انا عايزة حد يحلف لي على المصحف ويقول انشالله يعمى بعنيه لو حس باي رياح
انا شايفة بعيني اتنين بيطفوا الحريق في التلفزيون
اتنين…..اتنين يا بشر
ده لو الناس اللي ملمومة تفت على مجلس الشورى اللي بيتهد دلوقت كانت طفت
What wind are they talking about?
Where are those winds? I want someone to swear on the Holy Quran and say that I pray he becomes blind if he feels any wind.
I am watching television and see only two people trying to put out the fire.
Two .. only two.
If all the people gathered there spat on the Shura Council, which is about to collapse now, they would have put out the fire.
And while the fire was raging, Egyptians were exchanging Twitter messages on the developments. On the cause of the fire, Wael Khalil writes:
الغلطة غلطة المبني-قديم وكله خشب
It is the building's fault – it is old and made out of wood.
Malek complains about the smell from the fire:
ولاول مره اشم ريحة الحريق من ساعة المجلسين ماولعوا,الريحة سيئة فعل
I am smelling the fire for the first time since the two chambers went up in flames – and the stench is really bad