Politics & Government
OCC Professor: Mubarak Resignation a New Beginning
Longtime U.S. ally flees Cairo for Sharm el-Sheik on Sinai Peninsula after massive protests.
After ruling Egypt for almost 30 years, President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office Friday, following massive demonstrations across the most populous Arab state.
The resignation was announced by newly designated Vice President Omar Suleiman in a national broadcast that lasted less than 30 seconds. It sent hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered at Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere into frenzy celebrations.
Mubarak is reportedly in Sharm el-Sheikh, a city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
Find out what's happening in Skokiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
According to Suleiman, the Egyptian military will serve as care-taker of the government.
The announcement has reverberated as far as the Chicago area.
Find out what's happening in Skokiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Egyptian-born Jaleh Sherbini who taught at Oakton Community College’s Skokie campus last semester said Mubarak's resignation marks a new beginning for the North African nation of 80 million people.
"This is an historical event," Sherbini said. "We are witnessing the birth of a new Egypt and that of a new Middle East.
"This is a sign of self-determination we have never seen before. A true people's revolution," she added.
Sherbini said that Mubarak's "unprecedented move" to appointment a vice president for the very first time "was his way of exiting."
"The exit just came sooner than later, " she noted.
Having visited Egypt in December, Sherbini said she witnessed the worsening problem firsthand.
The longtime Chicago-area resident graduated from the American University in Cairo. Along with her husband, she moved to the U.S. in 1985 and eventually started a family in the Chicago area [Note: Not Skokie as earlier reported].
Last week, Sherbini said her family was safe in Cairo. She managed to reach them through a regular phone line because Internet and cell phone access had been cut off.
She said the Egyptian military was crucial in persuading Mubarak to step down through a “peaceful transition of power” and in preventing the eruption of severe violence. She added that the military remained a highly respected institution in the Egyptian society.
Stay tuned for updates as new developments occur.
