Tension was high in the streets of Cairo's medieval centre yesterday as the muezzin called the faithful to the noon prayer. Siona Jenkins, in Cairo, reports
Al-Azhar Street, the main thoroughfare in the city's oldest souk, is usually a cheerful, chaotic mess of cars, donkey carts, hawkers and shops. Instead, it was ringed by rows of riot police and closed to all but human traffic.
A growing crowd of men filled the eastbound lane and surged towards one of Islam's most venerable religious institutions, the 10th-century al-Azhar mosque.
This was day two of the war in Iraq and Egyptians were angry that Americans were invading a fellow Arab country and frustrated that their government had done little to prevent it.
Outside the mosque, hundreds of riot police stood waiting. I joined a cluster of journalists standing nervously beside them. The moment prayers were over the hundreds inside the mosque began chanting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") and tried to push out into the street. The police stood in their way.
Someone held up a homemade Iraqi flag. Suddenly, a shoe was thrown at the police, prompting a fusilade of sandals, trainers and flip-flops. A handful of men appeared on the roof and, using medieval stone crenellations as cover, began throwing down pieces of wood, glass - whatever they could find. Several policemen were carried to waiting ambulances.
Nearby, two groups of several thousand people were chanting "God is great; America is the enemy of God" and "Where is the Egyptian army?" Some called for a jihad against America and many were holding up Qurans.
While the lines of truncheon-wielding police kept the two crowds apart, they allowed those trapped in the mosque back out on to the street and, in what appears to be a new, softer policy towards public protest, they let the demonstrations continue.
Heading across town later, I noticed yet more rows of helmeted security forces blocking roads to the American embassy and wondered how many riot police it would take to contain all the public anger.