Burning Mubarak's picture in Journal Square, Egyptians gather to protest 30-year regime

Saturday, January 29, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Dozens of protesters assembled in Journal Square yesterday afternoon to support the end of the 30-year-rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is struggling to hold on to power as a popular uprising swells in the Middle East.

Forty to 50 people chanted "Bad!" repeatedly as others burned a picture of Mubarak marked with the words, "Live and let us live."

The United States, an ally of Egypt, provides the country with $1.3 billion in military aid annually, must support the anti-Mubarak revolution, said Said Afifi of Bayonne.

"For 30 years he's supported a small group of businessmen only," Afifi said of Mubarak. "I think the United States will support the revolution in Egypt."

Afifi is from Egypt originally, and sought asylum in the United States 10 years ago after Egyptian police arrested him for speaking out against Mubarak, he said.

Thousands clashed with police forces in Egypt yesterday who are trying to quell the rebellion. The Egyptian government has shut down Internet and some cell phone service in the country as Mubarak chastised the protesters for their "hooliganism and lawlessness."

Ahmed Lotfy of Little Ferry helped organize yesterday's Jersey City protest, sponsored by Egyptian Association for Change. Egypt under Mubarak is a "police state" that is so corrupt it can no longer function, Lotfy said.

"There have been a lot of attempts to tell this regime to reform . it never goes anywhere," he said.

Mubarak was voted in as president of Egypt in 1981, following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. He ran unopposed in that election, as he did in four subsequent elections.

He was reelected a fifth time in 2005, running against two candidates in an election that was plagued by accusations of mass-rigging.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the Egyptian government to "restrain the security forces," and she urged protesters to "refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully."