“I don’t think there actually has been a revolution yet. I think that what’s happened is that the figurehead of the military regime has been deposed very dramatically. Certainly that was a hugely significant event, it was an earthquake….Until then I think the two sides are stuck in their current positions, fighting it out through a range of ways. And one of these ways is street battles between the military security forces and the people.”-Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post

On December 17, Egyptians protesting the pro-U.S. military government of Egypt, set the Shura Council building on fire.  Unfortunately the fire spread next door, to the oldest science library in Cairo.

Egyptian Scientific Institute burned, destroying more than 150,000 books going back to the late 1700s.  It was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, and first called L’Institut d’Egypte.

Among the books, maps and charts destroyed is the first edition of the Description de l’Egypte, started under Napoleon Bonaparte by French scientists.  Egyptian officials say they still have two other editions located at two separate libraries.

Egyptians have been protesting the U.S. backed military government, mainly because of the thousands of people who’ve been rushed through military court trials, something the protestors were against from the beginning.  The military court trials convinced many Egyptians that they were not getting a new government, but just more of the same after the resignation of U.S. backed Hosni Mubarak.