LIers worry over family in Egypt

Ihab Ibrahim spent Sunday frantically trying to connect his parents - Americans stuck in Egypt - with anyone who could hasten their return home.

Unable to reach the American embassy in Cairo or U.S. officials in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, the Shoreham resident called some of New York's elected leaders, but still couldn't get his mother and father out of the country ahead of the U.S. State Department-sponsored flights scheduled to begin Monday morning.

"There is no location that is safe right now," said Ibrahim, 40, an administrator at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage. "And it's getting worse by the second."

Ezzat and Aida Ibrahim, retirees from Forest Hills, had just started a six-week visit with family when the uprising against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak began. Their son is especially worried because Ezzat Ibrahim, as a former Egyptian police officer, could be at even more risk.

As of Sunday night, Ezzat and Aida Ibrahim planned to travel from Alexandria to Cairo early Monday to try to catch a flight home, their son said.

Ihab Ibrahim was just one of hundreds of members at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Center-St. Abraam Church who were fretting Sunday over the volatile situation.

Regardless of personal politics, the Egyptian Christians gathered at the church in Woodbury were united in their concern for the well-being of loved ones. They heard a calming sermon from the Rev. Guirguis Tadros, followed by a call for three days of fasting and prayer this week.

"The [Egyptian] people, they don't want anything to control them anymore. That's a good sign," Tadros said. Demonstrators' attempt at democracy "is not something we can be afraid of."

"Do not be scared," he told his congregation. Later, Tadros admitted the situation is still "very worrisome." The retreat of police has left many Egyptians to form unofficial militias as hospitals, museums and courts are looted.

"We're all excited about the idea of freedom," said the church leader. "But with that excitement . . . there's a lack of security. There's definitely a lot of worry about how government is going to go forward."

Some Long Island Coptics spoke of the uneasy feeling of seeing tanks parked in the streets of a birth country they always saw as one of the more stable in the Middle East.

Raymond Nasieb, 41, a computer engineer, left Egypt for New York six years ago, but his mother and sister remain. "We couldn't sleep; our families there can't sleep," said the Merrick resident. "They make shifts in the street to protect themselves."

The upheaval has been a long time coming, Nasieb said. It has even united Christians, about 10 percent of Egypt's population, with the Muslim majority.

"Youth are hopeless now," he said. "They say, 'We have no jobs and need change.' "

Another Merrick resident with family in Egypt called the demonstrations unexpected. Neil Habib, 55, an engineer, frequently travels to Egypt, and said his brother Eddie, also of Merrick, is there now.

Citizens, including those calling for Mubarak's ouster, must be prepared for political turmoil going forward, he said.

"Hopefully it will pass, but I don't see a fast solution," Habib said. "Let's put it this way. The whole system collapsed."