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The end of Hosni Mubaraks 30-year rule was greeted with joy and hope Friday in the Stamford home of Egyptian businessman Mahmoud Elshazly.
"I am totally elated, of course," said Elshazly, a lumber exporter and president of the Alliance of Egyptian Americans. "This is something that we have been waiting for for so long. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian men and women worked very hard, but millions were supporting them and hoping to see that day."
Elshazly spends half his time in Cairo where he still has family. "Business activities are almost at a standstill for the past three weeks," he said, "but hopefully it will get back to normal. I'm very, very optimistic."
More than 300 people were killed during the revolt, according to reports, and Elshazly said he is now "holding his breath," given the chance Egypt could turn to extremism if democracy is not ushered in peacefully.
When it comes to choosing a leader, Elshazly stressed that he more concerned about ideas rather than personalities. "There are dozens of contending leaders," he said. "As they say, success has many fathers."
There is also the danger of Mubarak or his followers disrupting Egypt's movement toward democracy, he said. "During the coming weeks and months ... a lot of opportunists from the old guard will try to jump on the bandwagon. ... Mubarak and his old guard are gone, thank goodness, and we have to be very vigilant against them infiltrating and causing the revolution to be aborted."
At the Al-Aziz Islamic Center in Bridgeport, Muslim men and women mingled after performing afternoon prayers, excited at the new horizon for Egypt.
"Everything that I see reminds me of the time that I'm living in," said Imam Nasif Muhammad. "People are going to be coming together from different views and different ideas around whatever they think is unjust and unfair."
During Fridays prayer, Muhammad recalled a saying from the Qur'an that he deemed appropriate for this historic occasion. " 'God rejects oppression for Himself,' " he quoted. "In other words, God is not going to oppress us, so he doesn't want us to oppress each other. Any time that people are oppressed eventually that nature that is in the people is going to rise up.
Elshazly's business partners in Egypt described over the phone a scene that encapsulated this solidarity.
"Cairo is notorious for having garbage everywhere because nobody felt it is their country," he said. People were now cleaning these public spaces. "This shows that there is leadership there."
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