University of Florida professor in Egypt speaks about situation in Cairo

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Two days of wild clashes between protesters and regime supporters that killed 11 people this week seemed to have pushed the United States to the conclusion that an Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak at the helm is potentially more unstable than one without him.

Nearly 100,000 people packed the downtown plaza, whose name means "Liberation," in a protest dubbed the "Friday of departure" in hopes it would be the day Mubarak goes - the biggest showing since Tuesday, when a quarter-million people rallied.

Crowds that included families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir, a sign the movement was not intimidated by the violence of the previous two days. In that fighting, pro-Mubarak combatants hurled concrete, rebar and firebombs, unleashed barrages of automatic gunfire and even galloped through the square on camels and horses, swinging whips, but were eventually driven away.

Dr. Rasha Kamhawi, a University of Florida Professor, spoke via Skype with NewsChannel 5's Shannon Cake.

She said this is a time of change. "The winds of change are coming and we are very excited about what's happening. We are no longer scared. Two weeks ago nobody would dare speak badly of the regime. It's 38 years of tyranny but now everybody is speaking out and there is a lot of excitement of what is to come," she said.

Watch the full interview by clicking on the video at the upper left.

The Associated Press contributed to this report