I'm suspicious of reports of violence between protesters and "Mubarak supporters." So all the way up to now, they've been doing nothing, but after Mubarak agrees not to seek re-election, now they're taking to violent support of his presidency?
Methinks someone is trying to prevent a democratic, orderly transition of power. And it's probably not Mubarak.
From what I've heard, this isn't the first time Mubarak would have implemented riots to drive away protesters. Him saying he won't run again means nothing. Think about it this way: dictator promises to step down to make people stop protesting. People stop protesting, opposition leaders are quietly rounded up over the course of the next several months, and the dictator goes back to business as usual. Without opposing protests and human rights abuses of said protesters, the international community condemns the dictator lightly, if not ignores it altogether, and he goes on his merry way. The president of Yemen who promised not to run again? He promised that several years ago but kept in power anyway.
In this case, the protesters aren't simply standing down and going back to work, leaving him with 1 option remaining. He has to make it appear as if he has large numbers of supporters and make it appear as if his supporters convince the protesters to stop protesting while he himself appears to remain innocent. And don't forget his spokesman's interview from yesterday stating "Mubarak has millions of supporters, they just don't have a need to protest;" at this point, all fingers point to Mubarak.
I'm suspicious of reports of violence between protesters and "Mubarak supporters." So all the way up to now, they've been doing nothing, but after Mubarak agrees not to seek re-election, now they're taking to violent support of his presidency?
Methinks someone is trying to prevent a democratic, orderly transition of power. And it's probably not Mubarak.
I've said before that the fact that Iran and Saudi Arabia aren't having these mass riots is proof that the Islamists are going to take over in Egypt.
Nope. Check the relative PPP of the countries you mention.
Egypt: PPP 6.3k/capita
Tunisia: PPP 8.2k/capita
Iran: PPP 11.3k/capita
Saudi: PPP 23.7k/capita
Iran and Saudi Arabia both have more wealth per person in addition to much more powerful governments. These riots aren't about ideology, they are about not being able to put bread on the table.