New York’s Little Egypt is hailing the second popular revolt in two years.
“The military didn’t take over. The people did. It was a beautiful revolution,” said Sammy Ebrahem, who came from Cairo 26 years ago to start a new life in Astoria, Queens.
Like many Egyptian immigrants along Steinway Street, Ebrahem, 57, sharply disputes the description of Mohammed Morsi’s ouster as a coup.
“More than 30 million people in my country took to the street collectively, saying, ‘We give you a chance for a year, you fail miserably. It didn’t work out. Just leave!’ ” said Ebrahem, a limo-company owner, as he watched the latest TV news from Cairo at the El Khayam Cafe.
Down the street, at the Egyptian Coffee Shop and Hooka Lounge, Morsi, the Islamist president, was no more popular than the man he replaced, dictator Hosni Mubarak.
“The people voted for him because they didn’t know about him,” said Hani Medjid, 62, a retired former resident of Alexandria who has been living here for 35 years. “They just wanted to get rid of the first one. They were expecting better from him.”
Sam Sam, 48, blamed Morsi for triggering the kind of conflicts that some Arabs feared would turn Egypt into another Iraq.
“It is not going to happen in Egypt because all Egyptians are united — Jewish, Christians, Muslim,” he said. “[Morsi] is dividing the country.”
Egypt’s armed forces won praise here when they helped ease Mubarak out of power two years ago, and they are being cheered again by Egyptian-Americans.
“The military’s duty is to secure the people so that [Morsi’s] Muslim Brothers didn’t attack,” said Ebrahem.
“They were ready to attack. The military saved Egypt.”