CAIRO: As Egyptians celebrated a new era, pro-freedom protesters urged the military, who now runs the government, not to bow to foreign pressure to dictate the destiny of the country.
They also rebutted fears from the West that Egypt will turn into an extremist Islamic country and that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood would take over.
“The past few days proved that the Muslim Brotherhood is not the majority of the people,” said Mohamed Faisal, a member of the anti-Mubarak youth movement.
“Mubarak’s government really succeeded in making the Muslim Brotherhood the bogeyman so the West feared them,” Faisal added.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and most well-organised opposition organisation in Egypt with well-run charities and social welfare programmes.
Many protesters made it a point to tell foreign journalists that Egyptian society is multi-religious and multi-racial.
“Muslims and Christians are one. There is only one Egypt, not Muslim, not Christian,” said a protester at Tahrir Square.
“This is not a religious movement. We are liberal,” said Dr Khaled Nassef, who came from the city of Mansoura to join the protesters at Tahrir Square.
While Dr Khaled believes the military would honour its commitment to hold free and fair elections, he fears the United States, which pours over US$1bil (RM3.05bil) into the country annually, will try to interfere.
“Mubarak was a very faithful servant to the US for 30 years. The US will not let go of Egypt just like that,” said Khaled.
“I hope Egypt will be strong and withstand outside pressure,” he said.
He also questioned whether the military would subordinate itself to a civilian rule.
“Will the military respect the outcome of a free and fair election? Are they ready to be ruled by a civilian leader?
“So while I am happy Mubarak is gone, I am also a little bit worried of how things will turn out,” he said.