Protesters gather in West Toledo to support Egyptians

A local demonstration in support of Egyptian protesters Saturday drew about 70 people to the corner of Talmadge Road and Sylvania Avenue, near Westfield Franklin Park mall in West Toledo.

Co-organizer Zeinab Khalil said the purpose was to make a local expression of solidarity with the Egyptian people and a statement of opposition to the government of Hosni Mubarak, the longtime Egyptian president.

"Mubarak has been in office since 1981. There is so much corruption and police brutality," said Ms. Khalil, who is a Toledo native and University of Michigan student.

"We also want the U.S. to take a stronger stance in favor of the people of Egypt. We give Egypt $1.7 billion a year. This is military aid. It does not go to the people of Egypt."

Ms. Khalil said she has close family connections to Egypt. Her mother, Wafaa Zidan, and father, Dr. Abbas Khalil, an oncologist, are Egyptian immigrants.

She said she keeps in touch with relatives in Egypt and spoke with a cousin there a few days ago, before Internet and telephone communications were cut. "He told me that what I'm seeing on CNN isn't even a quarter of what's happening," she said.

The demonstrators carried placards bearing such statements as "Hosni Mubarak No More," "Last Pharaoh of Egypt — Mubarak," "Honk 4 Democracy," "Game Over," and "Free Egypt."

They also sang the Egyptian national anthem and chanted anti-Mubarak slogans.

The air was punctuated with the sounds of honking horns from passing vehicles.

Dr. Hussein Kashk, a pediatric emergency physician, noted that since Egypt gained independence in 1952, it has had only three presidents, each of them an autocrat.

Dr. Kashk said he was from Egypt and has been in Toledo for 20 years. He described the protesters in Egypt as "a nonviolent movement that wants social and political reform" and said he wanted to see a democratic constitutional republic emerge.

But he was making no predictions.