From the souks of Cairo to the university campuses of the Nile Delta, Egyptians expressed their opposition and ambivalence to the joint US-British attacks on Afghanistan yesterday.
An estimated 20,000 students protested at nine universities in northern Egypt and Cairo, calling the air raids "a war against Islam". On the streets of Cairo, many said they disagreed with the attacks because the US had not given evidence that Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were to blame for the September 11th carnage in the US. They also feared innocent civilians would be killed.
"Why should Afghanistan pay for what Osama Bin Laden might have done?" asked a taxi driver who gave his name as Kamal.
"Egyptians sympathise with victims," said Adel Hammouda, a journalist at the opposition Sawt al-Umma newspaper. "They see this as a war against the weak." Cairo newspapers reported the strikes without comment. The Egyptian government adopted a wait-and-see approach and did not issue an official statement.
President Hosni Mubarak has walked a fine line between supporting his US allies and placating a public suspicious of what it sees as US double standards in the Middle East, particularly with regard to the Palestinians.
Egypt is the most populous Arab country and one of the largest recipients of US aid in the world - some $2 billion per year. But like most other Arab countries, it stopped short of offering military assistance to the US in its mission to punish the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks, although behind the scenes it has reportedly furnished valuable intelligence on Islamist radicals.
President Mubarak has said the US should provide evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks in the US and has called for an international conference on terrorism under UN auspices.