Just last night I had encouraged an Egyptian friend, Raouf, living in the United States, who wanted to go back home to witness his country’s historic events. “I need to see this,” he told me excitedly. Now with fighting in the streets today I’m not so sure.
It has been an emotionally taxing week for him and countless other Egyptians both abroad and at home, caught between wanting to see Mubarak leave and fearful for the country’s security. None of his friends, Raouf told me, were out on the streets, even as they all wanted Mubarak gone. Over the weekend when Raouf found out there was rioting in his parents’ neighborhood of Mohandiseen he wanted to go home to help protect them. Finally they made their way to their in-laws’ place where there were plenty of guns on hand for personal security.
