Times Square turned into a little piece of Tahrir Square this afternoon as hundreds of Egyptians and sympathizers from around the metropolitan area gathered in midtown Manhattan to protest President Hosni Mubarak’s hold on to power and his crackdown on protesters in Cairo.
Chanting “Hey Hey Ho Ho, Mubarak Must Go” and “From the Nile to the Sea, Egypt Egypt Will Be Free,” the protesters waved Egyptian flags and held signs saying “Free Egypt Now” and “Down With Mubarak.”
“Over there it is revolution. We need to support the people of Tahrir Square. We will show them we are with them,” said Ramadan El Said, 41, of New Jersey.
El Said added that he did not expect much to change in Cairo in the short term. “Mubarak will stay in power. Over there it is like a family business.”
The U.S. government estimates that 60,000 Egyptian-Americans live in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Many of those interviewed at the rally said they still had family in Egypt and were concerned for their well being. Today’s rally follows another one last week in front the United Nations, and protesters today said that they would continue to gather in the streets here to show solidarity with their countrymen over there.
