The first story, by Martina Guzman, is about Detroit’s belly dancing scene.  Martina, a reporter for public radio station WDET, discovered that the Motor City is one of the few places in America where you can actually make a living as a belly dancer, thanks to the area’s large Middle Eastern population. Martina produced the story for our radio partner Studio 360.

In the second story, reporter Diego Graglia explores New York’s mysterious world of tango, a dance from his native Argentina.  Diego, who currently works for the Associated Press in Mexico City,  produced the story for WNYC, New York Public Radio.

Listen to the episode:

Subscribe to the Fi2W podcast on iTunes or Podbean ¦ Download this episode

Fi2W podcasts are supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundationwith additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund, and are produced in association with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and CUNY-TV.

The real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal is spearheading efforts to build a mosque near Ground Zero. (Photo: Mohsin Zaheer)

Listen to Sade-e-Pakistan reporter Mohsin Zaheer speak about the efforts to build a mosque near Ground Zero with WNYC’s Marc Garber.
[Visit post to listen to audio]

Sharif El-Gamal is determined to build a mosque near Ground Zero.  Despite the worldwide controversy that erupted last year over Mr. El-Gamal’s plan to develop a mosque and Muslim cultural center near the World Trade Center site, he is spearheading a new effort to make the proposal a reality.

Mr. El-Gamal, the chairman and CEO of Soho Properties, a real estate development company, has launched a campaign to raise $7-million to support the mosque project.  The deadline for raising the money is September 10, just one day before the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Referring to 9/11 in a speech at a fundraising dinner Friday night at the site of the proposed mosque in lower Manhattan, Mr. El-Gamal said, “Two blocks from where we are today our identities were stolen from us, and our faith was defaced.  And through this project we have an opportunity to show the world who we are, and what we believe in, and what our practice is, and what our faith is.”

Mr. El-Gamal denied that the September 10 fundraising deadline has any connection to the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  He called it a “motivational deadline” for people who want to support the project.  Another project supporter suggested that the date – 9/10/11 – may have been chosen for its numerological significance.

Watch El-Gamal’s remarks at a fundraising dinner on July 29, 2011:

Plans for the building at 49-51 Park Place include a space to accommodate 2-thousand worshipers and an adjacent community center that Mr. El-Gamal said would be like a YMCA.  The building, which is owned by Con Edison, is leased to Mr. El-Gamal’s group and already houses a small mosque.

Less than 75 people attended the kick-off dinner, which had been advertised in ethnic newspapers and on foreign-language TV channels aimed at Muslim immigrants.  Among those who showed up were a half dozen imams from around the country and representatives of the Nation of Islam, a sect mainly composed of African-Americans who have converted to Islam.  Some at the event speculated that many supporters of the project were scared to show up because of the negative publicity it received last year.

Noticeably absent were Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, who were the spokespeople for the project when it was originally introduced last year under the name Park51, and who became lightening rods for criticism by the project’s opponents.

Mr. El-Gamal said Imam Rauf and Ms. Khan are no longer associated with the project, and its name has been changed to PrayerSpace.

Mr. El-Gamal acknowledged the difficulties in getting the project off the ground. “There is no skirting around the issue, the story of this project and what the media has made of it,” he told supporters.  He said the mosque proposal is a response to “a specific need” in lower Manhattan’s Muslim community.   He said it will be “open to call, promote community relations, trust, goodwill and have a sense of neighborhoodlyness.”

Another speaker, Imam Abdul Malik of Panama City, Florida was among the few who directly addressed opponents, including conservative Republicans and some 9/11 family members who say it’s wrong to build a mosque so close to the site destroyed by Muslim terrorists.  “Islam is not responsible for what happened on that day,” he said, “we have to stop apologizing.”

According to an unofficial estimate, the fundraiser netted more than $200-thousand, including a $100-thousand loan from a mosque in Midtown Manhattan.   That was on top of $1.5-million organizers said they had raised previously.

Mohsin Zaheer of Sade-e-Pakistan contributed reporting to this story.

Fi2W is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

A protest in front of the United Nations in support of Shiite Bahranis who have been demonstrating for democracy in Bahrain. (Photo: Mohsin Zaheer)

NEW YORK–Ever since a wave of protests began sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East, Arab immigrants in the U.S. have been showing their support.

On March 27 the Al-Mahdi Foundation of New York along with a coalition of  Muslim organizations staged a demonstration in front of the United Nations building and the Saudi Arabian Consulate to express solidarity with Bahraini Shiites who have been demonstrating for social equality and democracy in Bahrain since February.

Demonstrators also called on the United Nations and the United States to prevent Saudi Arabia from sending troops to support the Bahraini government, which has used force against the protesters. In New York, the speakers criticized the Saudi Arabian government and the Sunni ruling family of Bahrain, the Al Khalifa family, which has ruled for more than two centuries over a Shiite majority.

The organizers are planning a follow-up protest in front of the White House in Washington D.C. on April 15, said Javed Hussain, secretary general of the Al-Mahdi Foundation.

A coalition of interfaith organizations called "Today I Am a Muslim Too" rallied in Times Square against the upcoming congressional hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims. (Photo: Mohsin Zaheer)

This is an excerpt of a post by Feet in Two Worlds journalist Aswini Anburajan on The American Prospect blog. The video was produced by Fi2W’s Mohsin Zaheer.

Despite rain that poured down on Times Square, hundreds of interfaith activists gathered on Sunday to protest Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) plan to hold for congressional hearings on radicalization within the Muslim community this week. The protest, titled, “Today I am A Muslim Too” was led by hip-hop artist Russell Simmons ,who was joined by with a coterie of religious and political leaders, including the only two Muslim members of Congress.

Representative Mike Honda of California compared the steps that King was taking to the political failures that lead to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Over the weekend, the White House also sent an advisor, Denis McDonough, to an interfaith gathering of Muslims. “In the United States we don’t practice guild by association,” the The New York Times reported McDonough saying…

Read Anburajan’s whole post at The American Prospect.

At the rally, mothers of victims of the 9/11 attacks expressed solidarity with Muslim Americans. Watch the video:

Imam Feisal Rauf and Daisy Khan, supporters of the Park51 Islamic Cultural Center and mosque in lower Manhattan also addressed the demonstrators. Watch their speeches here.

Mohsin Zaheer is the editor of Sada-e-Pakistan, an Urdu-language weekly in New York. His reporting for Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

A still from Pamela Geller and Rober Spencer's film, "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks."

NEW YORK—A number of activities taking place next week are setting the stage for a confrontation between the Muslim American community and those who have reservations about its presence in the U.S.  Congressman Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has scheduled a congressional hearing on the “radicalization” of Muslim Americans on March 10. In response, Muslims and Arab Americans in New York and Washington D.C. will be demonstrating about what they see as an attack on their civil rights. Meanwhile, opponents of Park51 are rolling out a “documentary” nationwide about the proposed project to build an Islamic Cultural Center in lower Manhattan.

From the outset, many Muslims and Arab Americans have opposed Rep. King’s plan to hold hearings on, “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.”  Over 80 people of different faiths from his district on Long Island, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and interfaith leaders sent a letter to King urging him to cancel the hearings.

“These diverse faith leaders believe the singling out of the Muslim community undermines fundamental American values and is counterproductive to improving national security,” the letter said.

After Rep. King turned rebuffed their calls, Muslim and Arab American communities decided to raise their voices on the streets of New York, Washington D.C. and other cities across the country.

On Sunday March 6, a broad coalition of over 75 interfaith, nonprofit, governmental, and civil liberties groups are scheduled to rally “in support of equitable civil rights for all Americans” in New York’s Times Square.

The Muslim Peace Coalition has also announced a rally and march scheduled for April 9 at Union Square in New York. The slogan of this demonstration will be “Standing Up Against Islamophobia, War and Terrorism.”

According to the House Homeland Security Committee’s chairman the hearing is needed to explore terror threats posed by radical American Muslims.

“[Due to] The measures taken after 9/11, al Qaeda has realized the difficulty it faces in launching attacks against our homeland from overseas. Thus it has adjusted its tactics and is now attempting to radicalize and recruit from within our country. In the last two years alone more than 50 Americans have been charged with terror related crimes,” Rep. King said in a letter responding to Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Minority Member of the committee on Homeland Security.

In its email to members of the Muslim American community, the Muslim Peace Coalition wrote, “Democracy is not a spectator sport and Muslims are not a football to be thrown around. We are people with rights and responsibility to speak up.”

Regarding homegrown terrorism, the Muslim Peace Coalition asked Rep. King to hold a hearing on the Arizona shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. They also suggested he ask the FBI for statistics on the profiles of the two million first time gun owners in the USA. “Who are these people and why are they buying guns. What is their faith?”

“The hearings will send the wrong message and alienate American Muslims instead of partnering with them, potentially putting their lives at risk by inciting fear and enmity against them,” the coalition stated in its statement about the Times Square rally. “Organizers of this rally believe one can be a loyal Muslim as well as a loyal American without conflict, and a great number of our fellow Americans support this view.”

Amidst the background of a growing controversy between the Muslim American community and the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, a new documentary produced by the leading opponents of the Park51 Islamic Cultural Center, often dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque,” is being shown around the country. At a recent screening in a church near the proposed site in downtown Manhattan, Pamela Geller, one of the producers of the documentary, vowed to continue her efforts to stop the project.

Watch Mohsin Zaheer’s video report about the documentary “The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.”

The documentary, which is titled “The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks,” is produced by Geller, co-founder of the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America and Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Both are  leading activists in the campaign against the Ground Zero Mosque.
Two groups, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) underwrote the film. At the screening of the film in February, more than 100 people were in the audience, including some family members of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The film not only discussed the 9/11 attacks, it also criticized Islam itself, as a faith. The producers, Ms. Geller and Mr. Spencer, disparaged Islam and its teachings while discussing Park51 and their efforts to stop the project.

The documentary’s publicity poster shows an image of the World Trade Center at the moment it was hit by the second airplane on September 11, 2001. The film warns that the Ground Zero Mosque is second wave of Islamic terrorism.

All those who were already against the Ground Zero Mosque reiterated their commitment after watching the documentary to continue efforts to stop the project.

At a time when the Muslim American community is confronted with challenges, most of them related to their faith one way or the other, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life is projecting that the Muslim population in the U.S. will more than double over the next two decades. Pew’s recent study showed the population rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030, in large part due to immigration and higher-than-average fertility among Muslims.

“The Muslim share of the U.S. population (adults and children) is projected to grow from 0.8% in 2010 to 1.7% in 2030, making Muslims roughly as numerous as Jews or Episcopalians are in the United States today,” the report said.

Mohsin Zaheer is the editor of Sada-e-Pakistan, an Urdu-language weekly in New York. His reporting for Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

A rally in solidarity with uprisings in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain in front of the United Nations on March 25, 2011. (Photo: Mohsin Zaheer)

New York – “My body is here, my life is here, my mind is in Libya for most of the day,” said Yasmeen Ar-Rayani, a 20 year old student at Columbia University.

The uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya has sparked fire in the Libyan diaspora, particularly among second generation youth who have never touched Libyan soil.

Many are the children of refugees: dissidents, exiles and students who fled after Qaddafi took power in a bloodless coup in 1969. Ar-Rayani’s father helped found the Libyan League for Human Rights after he defected, and she now serves as the organization’s North American spokesperson.

“It always occupied a strong space in my imagination, but since the uprising I’ve started to feel much more connected to Libya in a lot of ways,” said Ar-Rayani, who is a junior in college. She organized last Friday’s protest in front of the United Nations and has been coordinating with a network of Libyans around the U.S. and Canada to document human rights abuses, distribute petitions and support the protesters in Libya with software to help them get around government Internet blockers. She said the diaspora opposition movement founded by her parents’ generation is now being spearheaded by young people. “Our parents are still involved and they’ve adopted some of our methods, my father even got a Facebook account recently, which I never thought would happen,” she said.

Ar-Rayani’s feelings have been mixed over the past month. “It’s beautiful to watch the psychological impact it’s had on people in the Arab world,” she said, but at the same time, “excitement in a situation like this is also tempered by a sense of loss at all the deaths.”

Abdulla Darrat, an urban planner born in 1982, heads up the EnoughGaddafi twitter stream along with his wife, Sarah Abdurrahman, another Libyan American who is behind Feb17Voices. He’s been involved in the Libyan opposition movement since Qaddafi’s infamous visit to the UN in 2009. Darrat’s initial mission was to address the lack of information about Qaddafi in English and organize youth living outside of Libya in the opposition movement.

As soon as the protests started in Libya he saw another gap: Western media’s inability to connect with Libyans fighting their regime. He and his network, with their social networking prowess, began to act as middlemen between their sources in Libya and Western media outlets.

Without any independent media on the ground, the biggest challenge was confirming reports coming in from Libya.  The strategy they adopted was to wait until they heard the same stories of atrocities from numerous sources. “So we would get multiple reports of ‘they’re shooting us with 50 caliber bullets,’ so we’d report that, then we’d get video, a few days later the video and photographs would begin to trickle out slowly,” Darrat said. Another challenge was the hesitancy of Libyans to talk to the media, for fear of reprisals from Qaddafi’s government which used widespread phone-tapping.

A network evolved between Libyan American activists and those in the diaspora who had supported Egyptian and Tunisian protesters. Darrat reached out to individuals behind the powerful Jan25Voices Twitter stream, which served as an indispensable source for people seeking information about the Egyptian demonstrations. “We imagine ourselves as an extension of people on the inside, with our connections to friends and family we could fill the gap and get the media wheels rolling,” he said.

Like Ar-Rayani, Darrat has been doing a combination of Internet activism, distributing petitions and organizing protests in U.S. cities to promote solidarity with the Libyan uprising. During one weekend in February, while Qaddafi made it clear he would stubbornly hold onto his rule in the face of the protests, Darrat and over 30 other young people hunkered down in a house in Washington D.C. that became a control room of sorts for the Libyan diaspora opposition movement.

Now Darrat says, more and more Libyans in North Africa are feeling sufficiently confident to speak to the media, which has meant a shift in his strategy: less amplification and more petitioning the UN and U.S. State Department to support humanitarian efforts. “Luckily in the last couple days we can move to the side and let the people in the inside tell their own stories without us being in the middle,” he said.

Yuseff Assed’s parents are also Libyan exiles. The 27-year-old Columbia University student says until the recent events his interest in Libya wasn’t really political–it was academic. He hopes to publish work on Libyan politics, and is concerned that Libya’s situation is being abused by American political pundits and erroneously depicted in Western media. Assed is focusing his efforts on expanding information about the Libyan context, and is organizing an event this Thursday March 3 at Columbia’s Middle East Institute to this end. He views the uprising as a war of independence.

“I don’t think it’s a factually correct to say that Libya is on the brink of civil war because it’s a tribal society. I also think it’s incorrect to say that there are terrorist forces, Islamic fundamentalists, ready to seize power unless there is stable and orderly rule to keep them under control. Libya doesn’t have a real history of Islamic fundamentalism,” Assed said.

None of the three youth interviewed for this article have ever been to Libya, but they all said the uprising makes them proud to be Libyan and hope the movement will prevail so they can visit soon.

“Even people who are exiles like me, we have a very deep and profound relationship with people on the inside,” Darrat said.  Because of our parents our life has really been dominated by the struggle that our parents went through.  That struggle and responsibility are still very much alive in our generation.”

North African and Middle Eastern immigrants demonstrating in solidarity with the uprisings in their homelands. (Photo: Mohsin Zaheer)

The popular uprisings taking place in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia have sparked strong emotions in the diaspora communities of New York.

On Friday North African and Middle Eastern immigrants demonstrated in front of the United Nations in solidarity with the uprisings. Fi2W’s Mohsin Zaheer brings us this video report:

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

Tahrir (Liberation) Square on January 25, 2011 (Photo: We are all Khaled Said)

Following up yesterday’s post—Egyptian American bloggers and commentators have let loose a whirlwind of posts since the protests in Egypt began, and especially since last Thursday, when the Internet went dark for Egypt’s active virtual community.

The diaspora is afire with words of solidarity with the protesters, calls for Mubarak to resign immediately, anger towards what they view as misrepresentation of the situation by the Western media, analysis of President Obama’s handling of Egypt, and emotional personal narratives of connection to people and places in their homeland.

The Twitter conversation is dominated by #Egypt #Mubarak #Tahrirsquare and #Jan25 hashtags (the last of which refers to the day Egyptians took to the streets en masse, and is also National Police Day, a public holiday that commemorates the police resistance to British troops in 1952).

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian American former journalist, now blogger and columnist, has been one of the clearest and loudest voices throughout the uprising. On Tuesday she was a guest on PBS Newshour discussing what’s next for Egypt:

A protest in solidarity of the Egyptian uprising in front of the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Messay.com)

The revolution sweeping over Egypt is echoing through the virtual realm, and reverberating in the form of solidarity protests across the United States.

In the last week, as they’ve watched coverage streaming on Al Jazeera’s website and read on-the-ground blog and Twitter posts that have managed to get through the Egyptian government’s blockage of Internet access and cell phones, Egyptian immigrants have appeared jubilant about the revolution turning their country upside down.

“I am really happy, I hope he (Mubarak) will leave without any more bloodshed,” said Eman Morsi, a PhD candidate at NYU in Middle Eastern studies, who attended a protest outside the United Nations in New York on Saturday.

“It took me by surprise—nobody could see it coming—but when you think about it, it’s not really shocking, it had to happen at some point, with the non-existence of a political situation where you could vent your grievances,” she told Fi2W.

Morsi, who is 26 and grew up in Cairo, said her generation had been very cynical about Mubarak’s government. ”I was born with Mubarak, so it would be nice to see someone else,” she said, with a hint of sarcasm.

Over the past 30 years of Mubarak’s presidency, Morsi said, the country’s safety net has frayed, the middle class as shrunk while poverty has increased and power has become concentrated in the hands of a few.

“I’m positive that things will get better from now on—as long as real democracy happens—not just replacement of one ‘pharaoh’ with another.”

The protests in Egypt were sparked by Tunisia’s successful revolution earlier in January, and many of the themes are similar—joblessness, government corruption, police brutality, and rising food prices.

Ahmed Teleb, an Egyptian American living in Seattle, said he was cautiously optimistic. “It looks like he’s going to fall, but what will they put in place? Just another military person?”

Teleb said Mubarak has been hated by many Egyptians for a very long time.  He remembered riding buses in Cairo about 20 years ago where the passengers would chant “Mubarak Hamarak!” (Mubarak, you’re a donkey!) as presidential processions marched by.

Some Egyptian Americans have been frantic over the past week as they were unable to reach their relatives and friends once Internet and cell phone service were severed by the government. But Teleb was calm, saying his mother, who lives in the U.S. but coincidentally was in Cairo when the protests began, reported she is safe, and excited about the revolution. “She and my cousin feel safe enough to be marching (Tuesday),” Teleb said.

But along with the excitement over a new, potentially more democratic political era in their homeland, some Egyptian Americans are feeling anxious about the possibility of a power vacuum in their country. No clear opposition leader has emerged, with the possible exception of Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Haroon Moghul, a Pakistani American who is the executive director of the Maydan Institute, said increasingly he is hearing concern from Egyptian Americans about political paralysis. “What if Egypt can’t get out of this and see the way ahead?”

Both Moghul and Morsi cautioned against comparing this Egyptian revolution with Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979. “It’s two completely different situations,” said Morsi, who said she was disappointed in mainstream media outlets for making that analogy.

Moghul, who recently published an article outlining how Egypt’s revolution is not Islamic, said the western press has for too long portrayed the struggle in Egypt as one of religion—Muslim Brotherhood vs. Mubarak—when there are real economic and political injustices in the society. “They are too concerned with the role of religion and not concerned with the lives of Egyptian people,” Moghul said.

Morsi predicted Mubarak’s ouster would succeed, but it would take a few weeks, particularly because the U.S. government hasn’t openly rejected the Egyptian leader, a longstanding, strategic ally in the Middle East.

One notable aspect of this uprising has been how Egyptians have harnessed social media and blogs to organize demonstrations and spread the word about what is happening in the streets, while the government has told a different story on state owned media, harassed journalists, and in a fearful move, shut down Internet Service Providers and cell phone networks.

“People are using their landlines to call international modems to get their information out,” said Deborah Ann Dilley, the Daily Digest editor at Global Voices, a project that aggregates and curates blog posts and citizen media from around the world. As it gets more difficult for Egyptians in Egypt to reach international audiences, Dilley predicted Egyptian immigrants on social networks and blogs would amplify their voices: “The diaspora is going to take on more of the role of getting out the information,” she said.

Tunisian immigrants showed their support for the revolution in a protest outside the UN. (Photo: Merel van Beeren)

By Jessamy Klapper

The political revolution taking place in Tunisia is reverberating in New York City. Over a hundred Tunisian immigrants gathered near UN headquarters on Monday to demonstrate solidarity with their countrymen, who have overthrown President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, a man who held his country under an iron thumb for 23 years.

In a powerful synergy, the protest fell on Martin Luther King Jr. day, and many of the demonstrators used images and words from the legacy of the great civil rights leader.

The day also marked one month since Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old unemployed university graduate, set himself on fire in a protest of despair against high unemployment and his treatment by local police. Bouazizi’s suicide sparked massive protests across Tunisia, leading to President Ben Ali’s flight from his country and a power shuffle, still in process.

Near the Tunisian Mission to the UN, many demonstrators wrapped the bright red Tunisian flag around their heavy winter coats. Handmade signs invoked King’s famous words: “Tunisians Also Have a Dream” and “I Have a Dream. Free Tunisia.” The crowd kept up a steady stream of chants in Arabic, English and French for a few hours.

“This is a historical moment,” said Jamal Benaji, a Tunisian who has lived in New York for 15 years. “After 23 years the people arrived to overthrow a dictator.”

The demonstrators also called for the removal of Mohammed Ghannouchi, the current prime minister. The acting president, Fouad Mebazaa, charged Ghannouchi with creating a national unity government while the country gets ready for elections in two months’ time, but Ghannouchi is considered by many to be part of the old regime’s corrupt elite.

A little boy, perched on his father's shoulders, led the crowd in chants. (Photo: Merel van Beeren)

Mary Annabi, a woman from Ireland married to a Tunisian, praised the democratic system in the U.S. where she has lived for twenty years. “Here, the Constitution is by the people, for the people,” she said. “In Tunisia, the constitution is for the President.”

The constitution is one of the issues Tunisians will have to face as they attempt to reform their government, since it is thought to favor the old regime.

Other demands were for a UN presence at the upcoming elections and for the organization to pressure Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and other countries to extradite Ben Ali and his family back to Tunisia where they can stand trial.

The Tunisian protests have unsettled many in the Arab world, where leaders are worried they may set off a domino effect. In the past week, protests in Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Algeria have borrowed the language and symbols of Tunisia’s uprising. Even Bouazizi’s self-immolation has  been repeated in Algeria and Egypt, with one confirmed suicide in Alexandria.

“I’m from Egypt, and I’m coming in solidarity with our brothers in Tunisia,” Ahmed Lotfy said, waving an Egyptian flag outside the UN.

Zakaria Eltourroug, a student from Morocco, focused on the revolution’s positive side: the possibility for change. “I am really glad that this happens in our lifetime,” he said. “Finally one Arab country woke up and said ‘Enough!’. Hopefully, this is just the beginning. I am waiting for Algeria to be changed, Egypt to be changed, even Libya.”

The protest in front of the UN was not staged by an official organization, but by a group of friends. One of the organizers was Jamal Saidi, a US citizen originally from Thala, another Tunisian city rocked by protests in the last few weeks.

“We picked today, it was a coincidence,” Saidi said, “but when we found out, we went for it: Martin Luther King Day.”

Jessamy Klapper is a freelance journalist pursuing a joint MA in Journalism and Near Eastern Studies at New York University. She graduated from Middlebury College in 2009, where she majored in Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on Arabic Literature.

Merel van Beeren (photographer) is originally from the Netherlands, and obtained BA and MA degrees in Religious Studies – Islam at the University of Amsterdam. She is currently pursuing a MA in the Global Journalism and Near Eastern Studies program at New York University. Her writing and photography focuses on the representation of migrant Muslim communities in Western countries.