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From Tahrir to Times Square, Protestors Rally in New York

Andrea Lunt

NEW YORK, Feb 4 2011 (IPS) - Cairo’s pro-democracy movement stretched from Tahrir Square to Times Square Friday, as hundreds of people gathered in New York City to urge the worldwide community to throw their support behind the Egyptian peoples’ fight for self- determination.

Among them was Egyptian-born American Israa Ismaeil, 18, who fronted the banner-waving crowd as one of the key speakers at the demonstration.

“I’m here for my people, they deserve to have their voices heard all around the world, what they need now is self- determination and determination from everyone around the world,” Ismaeil told IPS.

“You know, 30 years have passed by but it’s better late than never,” she said, referring to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak’s decades-long autocratic reign.

“Us, as American Egyptians, we’re part of the U.S., we’ve played a huge role and we’ve been here all our lives… but our heart is back home. My family’s in Egypt,” she said.

Another New York-based activist, introduced only as Rafat, rallied the crowd with shouts of “Kefaya”, the unofficial catch cry of the Egyptian Movement for Change.

“People who were born in London don’t have more rights than people who were born in Alexandria,” he shouted. “This is not 1979 and Egypt is not Iran and we have nothing to fear from democracy and we have nothing to fear from freedom.”

“I want to tell my brothers and sisters in Egypt and my brothers and sisters in America and all over the world that if we unite in one voice and keep up the pressure than we’ll finally be free,” he said.

Many Egyptian Americans have been frustrated with the United States’ response to the Cairo protests, hoping President Barack Obama would take a more active role in convincing Mubarak to step down.

With ideological parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood seeking to ride the wave of discontent in Cairo, the U.S. has been fearful of seeking to change the status quo and until earlier this week maintained support for the beleaguered Egyptian leader’s regime.

Pressure is mounting on Mubarak, however, with both Obama and the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon saying on Wednesday that a transition of power needed to take place “now”.

Dina Guirguis, a Christian Egyptian and Keston Family Research Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the U.S. government could afford to take a more active role in supporting the will of the Egyptian people.

She told IPS the cautious approach Obama took in the beginning had been disappointing, but that the continued intensity of the protests had forced his administration to act.

“We saw almost an 180-degree switch overnight,” she said, referring to the U.S. stance on the protests. “And that’s testament to the speed with which the events have unfolded and really the U.S. lacking a coherent strategy or contingency plan at all for anything like this happening in the region.”

“I think they simply relied on the status quo and Mubarak being able to continue to repress his people and this really came as a massive wake-up call,” she said.

Guirguis has advocated for Egypt to make an immediate transition to democracy, arguing that possibilities of a power vacuum, or ideological parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood rising to power, were small.

She told IPS the military – a respected force in Egypt – was well positioned to maintain stability should a transition take place.

“The military is a very large and stabilising force that wields credibility in the Egyptian peoples’ eyes,” she said. “Really the military is in control and possibilities of real, serious power vacuums are not exactly there at the moment, or the military’s hyper presence and vigilance makes that less likely of a scenario.”

Violence has marred this week’s protests in Egypt, with serious clashes occurring between pro-democracy demonstrators and Mubarak supporters.

Media outlets have reported the death toll has topped 100 since the demonstrations began last Tuesday, but there is no official confirmation on that estimate.

Security forces in the capital have also cracked down in recent days, in an apparent attempt to suppress the mass wave of demonstrations, while there have been widespread reports of attacks against journalists, both local and foreign.

Today, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced her concerns at the ongoing violence, condemning the attacks on foreign media as a tactic to silence press freedom.

She also called for the immediate release of more than 20 local and international human rights defenders arrested and detained by the military police in Egypt.

“Change is coming to Egypt, as it came to Tunisia, but the violence and bloodshed must stop now,” Pillay said.

“Governments should listen to their people, and start addressing their human rights deficits immediately. We now see there is an intense hunger for human rights in the Middle East and North Africa – and of course in other countries in other regions,” she said.

“Governments, who ignore these extremely loud and clear warning signals are doing so at their own peril,” Pillay added.