The Internet is not a virtual world inhabited by avatars. It is a means of communication that offers people in the physical world a method to organiz… - Wael Ghonim

The revolution has no leader, I said. It was more like a raging wild horse that would buck anyone who tried to mount it against its will.

The regime's policies, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had engendered a sharp divide between Muslims and Christians, in spite of the fact that generations of Muslims and Coptic Christians had lived together peacefully in the past. The regime was good at utilizing this divide to create a perception that without Mubarak in power, Egyptians would break out into sectarian warfare. As a result, Mubarak managed to market his police state successfully to the international community as the lesser of two evils.

Huge numbers of people decided to take to the streets, some for no other reason than just to find out what was happening.