Egyptians, Inspired by Tunisia, Use Facebook to Set Up Protest March Today

On Facebook, more than 85,000 people have pledged to attend a nationwide antigovernment protest planned for today Jan. 25, in Egypt.

The Middle East is walking into an anxious week after a busy weekend, one that saw authoritarian regimes from Algeria to Yemen experience the ripple effect of the fall of Tunisia's President, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Large antigovernment demonstrations broke out in Jordan, Yemen and Algeria, while more men —
particularly in Egypt and Algeria — have joined the ranks of self-immolators inspired by Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian whose suicide sparked that country's revolution. "What is very important about what happened in Tunisia, regardless of whether it spreads, is that it certainly raised a lot of hope among Egyptians and among other Arab people in different countries," explains Hassan Nafaa, a political-science professor at Cairo University and a vocal critic of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

Beyond the wave of protests, that hope has found a voice in independent newspapers across the region and in new, audacious political demands made by opposition groups. In Jordan and Yemen, analysts say, verbal attacks by opposition groups show an unprecedented confidence and ferocity, including calls by Jordanian opposition members to have an elected Prime Minister and turn King Abdullah of Jordan's nominally constitutional monarchy into a real one.


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