CAIRO, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Thousands of people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a rally given the name "Cleansing Friday: Protect the Revolution."
The protest was also a display of inter-religious solidarity, the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm reported. After Mohamed Gebreel, an independent Islamic cleric, led Friday prayers and called in his sermon for the ouster of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and his Cabinet, a Coptic Christian mass was celebrated with worshipers chanting "God bless my nation."
Gebreel prayed for those killed in Libya.
Demonstrators also demanded an end to police abuse. Microbus drivers from the Maadi neighborhood in Cairo came to the square to protest the death Thursday of a fellow driver shot by a police officer.
"We came here to protest against the unfair practices of the police," one driver told al-Masry al-Youm. "I haven't participated in any demonstration before, but after what happened in Maadi, I've decided to come to join the people."
Muslim Brotherhood banners around the square demanded the group's political prisoners be freed.
