CAIRO, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Opposition groups in Egypt have failed to inspire sweeping anti-regime demonstrations despite the rash of protest suicides across North Africa, a scholar said.
Egyptian religious leaders said they would focus much of the sermons for Friday prayers on self-immolation. Egyptian religious scholars this week ruled that protest suicides are forbidden under Islam.
A self-immolation in December sparked the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which brought down the government last week. Scores of frustrated North Africans have followed suit, including a man who set himself on fire in front of the Egyptian Parliament this week.
Egyptian anthropologist Fayrouz Karawya told the daily al-Masry al-Youm that despite growing unrest, many of the opposition groups in Egypt aren't able to "articulate the daily needs of the ordinary citizen and transform them into a wide-ranging protest movement."
Experts interviewed by the Egyptian newspaper said self-immolations in North Africa are unlikely to inspire a revolution like in Tunisia. Karawya said, however, that the overall message was lost.
"If someone sets himself alight before Parliament, he is trying to convey a message to society," she said. "But the way the message has been reconstructed by the media could lead to a misinterpretation of their motives."
