Local Egyptians transfixed by turmoil in their native land

An estimated 4,000 Egyptians live in Massachusetts. Many sat by television screens or surfed Internet sites today, ravenous for any bit of news coming out of a country that has essentially cut off all communications with the outside world.

Protesters are challenging the 30-year rule of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. The protests in Egypt are part of a broader movement sweeping across the Middle East, as revolutionaries are challenging governments that have held power for decades.

“People have been very frustrated for decades now,” said Ashraf Hegazy, born in Egypt, and executive director of The Dubai Institute at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Hegazy said in a telephone interview that the movement in Egypt derives its force from a poor economy that has left millions without jobs and struggling for necessities, and many questioning corruption within government and in the police force.

Hegazy also pointed out that, while older generations have become apathetic to the corruption, today’s protests are being led by what he called the “youth bulge,” the demographic of 18-to-30-year-olds who make up much of the country’s population -- and hold few of the jobs.

Nassar, an engineer from New Bedford who asked that his name not be used because he has family surrounded by the turmoil, said that the large-scale demonstrations showed that government had oppressed many people.

“It is everybody. The masses,” he said at the Roxbury mosque. “No one can get credit, and no one can be blamed.”

Nassar said that as much as the protesters were suffering from the economy, a lifetime living under martial law is what spurred the people to revolt.