Egypt protests spread to US cities

As protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued Saturday in North Africa, Egyptian-Americans assembled in New York to demonstrate their dissatisfaction for his regime.


In New York, near the United Nations headquarters, crowds carried banners and flags and chanted slogans in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of those rallying in Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities.

Similar events are also expected later in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, on top of demonstrations in places like Boston and Columbus, Ohio. Likeminded anti-Mubarak rallies were not confined to the United States, with Britain, Australia, Switzerland and Canada among the other nations that saw significant protests Friday and Saturday.

Ahmed Lotfi, media coordinator for the Egyptian Association for Change, and the organizer of this protest had this to say:

The future of the largest Arab-populated nation remains uncertain, and protesters here are concerned about the chaos and lawlessness on the streets in Egypt. Protesters here say the reports of looting, ransacked businesses, and violence are the work of Mubarak and his pro-regime thugs, not the demonstrators.

Some are worried about family and friends there and are doing their best to keep in touch.

Protesters here are not only calling for an end to the Mubarak Regime, but also calling on the US to stop funding the dictator.

The United States is a long-time ally of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and funds his regime with over 1 billion dollars in aid.

Protesters plan to continue to show solidarity with the people of Egypt until justice is served in the North African nation. They also say such demonstrations are aimed at pressuring the Obama administration to take a harder line against the Mubarak regime, which has run Egypt for 30 years.