Egypt's Mubarak resigns as leade

The Egyptian revolution, itself influenced by the Tunisian uprising, has resurrected a new sense of pan-Arabism based on the struggle for social justice and freedom. The overwhelming support for the Egyptian revolutionaries across the Arab world reflects a sense of unity in the rejection of tyrannical, or at least authoritarian, leaders, corruption and the rule of a small financial and political elite.

But this is not an exact replica of the pan-Arab nationalism of those days. Then, pan-Arabism was a direct response to Western domination and the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. Today, it is a reaction to the absence of democratic freedoms and the inequitable distribution of wealth across the Arab world. We are now witnessing the emergence of a movement for democracy that transcends narrow nationalism or even pan-Arab nationalism and which embraces universal human values that echo from north to south and east to west. This is not to say that there is no anti-imperialist element within the current movement. But the protests in Egypt and elsewhere promote a deeper understanding of human emancipation, which forms the real basis for freedom from both repression and foreign domination.

Unlike the pan-Arabism of the past, the new movement represents an intrinsic belief that it is freedom from fear and human dignity that enables people to build better societies and to create a future of hope and prosperity. The old "wisdom" of past revolutionaries that liberation from foreign domination precedes the struggle for democracy has fallen. Events in Egypt and Tunisia have revealed that Arab unity against internal repression is stronger than that against a foreign threat - neither the American occupation of Iraq nor the Israeli occupation galvanised the Arab people in the way that a single act by a young Tunisian who chose to set himself alight rather than live in humiliation and poverty has.

In the 1950s and 1960s, millions of Arabs poured onto the streets determined to continue the liberation of the Arab world from the remnants of colonial domination and the creeping American hegemony. In 2011, millions have poured onto the streets determined not only to ensure their freedom but also to ensure that the mistakes of previous generations are not repeated. Slogans against a foreign enemy - no matter how legitimate - ring hollow if the struggle for democratic freedoms is set aside.

For this is a genuine Arab unity galvanised by the common yearning for democratic freedoms.

Welcoming the army’s role, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition group, called for an end to the state of emergency, for Parliament to be dissolved and for “free and fair elections under judicial supervision,” it said in an e- mailed statement today.

Thousands of Egyptians gathered today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focus of the biggest protests, helping to clear rubbish left by demonstrations that had turned to celebrations late yesterday. Some said they would continue to protest until the army gave a clear schedule for constitutional reforms and elections.

“We are not going to leave until all our demands are met” said Hany Mikael, 26, a clothes producer. “We are waiting now for the army’s statement on their next step with a clear timeline on how they will form the transitional government.”

“We’re thrilled,” said Waleed Rashed, a co-founder of Six of April Youth, a youth-activist group that helped organize the first protest on Jan. 25. “There are a lot of things still to be worked out, but we trust the army to supervise the transitional period. We hope things will be better. If they are not, we now know the way.”