Three more Egyptians set themselves alight on Friday, apparently inspired by an act of self-immolation in Tunisia that prompted protests that led to the ousting of the president as religious scholars slammed suicide as un-Islamic. "An unemployed 35-year-old Egyptian set himself alight and was seriously wounded," Reuters quoted security and medical sources as saying. Two workers from firms in Egypt's textile sector, an industry from which many factory workers have led the most violent demonstrations against the Government in recent years, also poured fuel over themselves and set themselves ablaze. There were three other cases of self-immolation, although witnesses and sources said they were mainly motivated by psychological reasons rather than political protest. An employee at the Health Ministry's directorate of el-Gharbia in the Nile Delta threatened to torch himself after a decision to transfer him to a public hospital in el- Mahalla very far from his residence. "I do invite all to witness me setting myself alight in el-Mahalla after the oppression of the Health Ministry," said Galaa Fouad Hafez, who works in the Ambulance Authority in a facsimile to his boss. Analysts say several self-immolation cases or attempted acts in Egypt, now numbering more than a dozen, seem to be driven by broadly similar complaints to those that drove Tunisians to the streets and toppled their president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. While they say there is no sign yet of momentum building towards a broader uprising that could overwhelm Egypt's vast security apparatus, Tunisia's events have attracted broad attention and vigorous calls on the web for political change. The unemployed 35-year-old, Salah Saad Mahmoud, moved to Cairo in search of work to save enough money to own a home and marry but has instead been living off small day wages, security sources said. He set himself on fire in the middle of the street, before being put out by bystanders, the sources added.
