Anti-government protests have broken out in Egypt after an internet campaign inspired by the uprising in Tunisia, BBC online reports Tuesday.
Thousands of protesters are marching through Cairo chanting anti-government slogans, after activists called for a “day of revolt” in a web message. Riot police have tackled protesters in the capital, using tear gas to try to disperse them.
Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month. Protests are rare in Egypt, which President Hosni Mubarak has ruled since 1981, tolerating little dissent.
The events in Cairo were co-ordinated on a Facebook page – tens of thousands of supporters clicked on the page to say they would take part. The BBC says rallies are being held in several parts of the capital, and the turnout so far is more than the organisers could have hoped.
Pootesters gathered outside the Supreme Court holding large signs that read: “Tunisia is the solution.” They then broke through lines of police and began to march through the streets, chanting: “Down with Mubarak.”
The organisers rallied support saying the protest would focus on torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment, calling it “the beginning of the end”.
“It is the end of silence, acquiescence (affinden sig) and submission (underkastelse) to what is happening in our country,” they said in comments. “It will be the start of a new page in Egypt’s history – one of activism and demanding our rights.”
Egypt has many of same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia – rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption.
But Egypts population has a much lower level of education than Tunisia. Illiteracy is high and internet penetration is low.
