Egyptian Celebrations Planned In Downtown Dallas, Frisco

FRISCO (CBSDFW.COM) - From Cairo to Frisco, celebrations over Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepping down are loud and global.

"It was very difficult to watch from overseas," said Essam Atala, an Egyptian student. "I wished I was there. If you look one month back, no one imagined that this could happen actually."

Egyptians and their supporters living in North Texas said the changing of the guard in Egypt is proof that peaceful demonstrations can work miracles.

"To put down a dictator who has been in power for 30 years in just 18 days and the people remained peaceful, no matter what religion you were, you came together as one," said Rania Mohamed, an Egyptian-American.

Now may be a time to celebrate. But for the older generation of Egyptians who immigrated to North Texas, the question now is, what's next?

"I'm worried since the economy is bad now after what happened, it needs a lot of work," said Alisha Mohamed, an Egyptian immigrant.

Local celebrations continue over the weekend. There were be a rally at the JFK Memorial in Downtown Dallas Saturday and a festival Sunday at Breckenridge Park in Richardson.

"This is the first time after colonialism ended in 1918 that Muslims have taken an approach of finding solutions through nonviolence," said Mike Ghouse, spokesman for the World Muslim Congress of Dallas. "There was not any violence. This was done the Gandhi way."