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| Crowds gathered in Dearborn on Friday, Feb. 11 and Saturday, Feb. 12 to celebrate Mubarak’s departure. Hundreds showed their support and optimism. for the future. PHOTOS: Natasha Dado/TAAN |
Fadel Soofi, a Yemeni American from Dearborn says he hopes the rest of the Arab world undergoes transformations in power as Tunisia and Egypt have. He said Yemen is next. Dr. Ola Elsaid of Rochester Hills who helped organize the celebration left Egypt in 1995. “I’m proud…I’m just extremely excited. We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” she said. Dr. Elsaid says part of the reason protests sparked was oppression among civilians and high unemployment figures. She doesn’t think the military should stay in control of the country for long. “We want to see a civilian democratic rule chosen by the people and fair and free elections,” she added.
Mubarak’s health has declined since he stepped down. According to news reports he went into a coma right after announcing his resignation. Other reports say he’s on the verge of dying, depressed, almost fainted and needs help walking, while some said he was actually in good health.
“We’re going to be the next Egypt. I hope all Arab countries do the same because we need our freedom and we’re going to be united,” said Nasser Mutuana, who is from Yemen and has been in the United States for five years.
The crowd of about 200 marched to the Lebanese American Heritage Club in Dearborn from City Hall where the celebration continued as several Arab Americans made passionate and moving speeches and sang the Egyptian national anthem. “I will tell you the days to come are the brightest days of Egypt and the worst days of Egypt are behind us,” Publisher of The Arab American News Osama Siblani said in his address to the crowd at the LAHC.
Despite the corruption in Mubarak’s regime some Egyptians say they’re not seeking revenge. “To be tried or not, the nature of Egyptians is peaceful, full of tolerance, forgiving and do not like to practice revenge. They live these morals from Christ and the prophet Muhammad, when he entered Mecca and forgave everyone. Generally I think the people of Egypt are inclined to forgive him provided he returns any belongings to the Egyptian people, if he had committed any wrongdoing,” Egyptian American Ahmed Elsayed said.
To express thanks to protesters in Egypt Iman Abdeuatif,17, and Heba Elsayed,13, sang a song in Arabic at the LAHC. “In our song we said congratulations to everyone, they helped us gain victory,” Abdeuatif said.
Friday also brought a celebration at the LAHC following the morning’s news that Mubarak had finally stepped down. About 150 people including representatives from many of the major newspapers and TV stations in metro Detroit came out to the LAHC for a jubilant celebration of Mubarak’s departure.
The crowd also joined together to sing the Egyptian national anthem as TV news cameras rolled. Ahmed Aly, an Egyptian American with family in Alexandria, Egypt, heard about the celebration on the radio and came to the LAHC to revel in the victory of the people.
He said he spoke with his family following the big news.”Everybody is partying out in the streets right now doing all kinds of crazy stuff; it’s freedom and a taste of a new life and a new future for Egypt,” he said.
Aly’s voice swelled with emotion as he talked about the prospect of his family members having a chance at a better future. He said that they had joined the protesters in the streets of Egypt and that he was extremely proud of them.
“This is a new beginning for them and it’s not going to be easy but they knew that before they started the whole thing,” he said.
“It took America a very long time before they finally abolished slavery and everyone had the right to vote, so it does take time to have a true democracy…but it’s a new future for Egypt, which we know has been a great civilization. We had the oldest government in the world but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem to find a good person to be the new president.”
Attorney and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Advisory Board Chairman Shereef Akeel, also an Egyptian American, was moved by the day’s events.
“Words can’t describe this momentous occasion but we can start by saying that we feel jubilation, elation, gratification, and satisfaction,” he said.
“We watched a grassroots movement led by the youth who expressed the need for change to be free of tyranny, hostility, to try to achieve liberty, with the eventual goal of democracy,” said Akeel, who emphasized the last syllable in each word to showcase the emotion he and others had been feeling.
“We witnessed all of this just 18 days through peaceful resistance, borrowing the strategy from people like Ghandi,(Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and Cesar Chavez…we saw a 30-year dictatorship crumble before our very eyes…the people did not waver from peaceful resistance, they got louder and louder until (Mubarak) finally got it.”
Siblani also spoke, kicking off the event while making reference to the wave of Arab uprisings that was first triggered by Tunisia’s ousting of President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali.
“Today we witnessed the rise of the Sphinx, the young, believers, the people that believe in their destiny…no one believed in them but they believed in themselves,” he said.
“We march for the rights of the Palestinians, for the Yemenis, for the Iraqis, and everyone else; we marched for the freedom of Egyptians over the last month and look what happened.”
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