It seems like our allies in Egypt and Turkey have a particular intolerance for cartoonists and satirists in their parallel crackdowns on free speech. In Turkey, the Miss Turkey was arrested for repeating a satirical comparison of President Erdogan to Gollum. In Egypt, a teenager was jailed for cartoons of Muhammad and a leading businessman was attacked for a cartoon of Micky Mouse with a beard. Then there was the three-year sentence given Amr Nohan, a 22-year-old law graduate for posting a Facebook image of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with Mickey Mouse-style cartoon ears (shown left). Now a leading cartoonist Islam Gawish, 26, has been arrested in Egypt by the hyper sensitive el-Sisi government.
Garish has a huge following of 1.6 million on Facebook. While he is not viewed as a particularly loud critic of the government, the el-Sisi government has plunged head first into the criminalization of free speech and jailing of critics.
The cause of the arrest may be the recent cartoon by Gawish of Mortada Mansour, a progovernment lawmaker who is widely ridiculed for his temper and bad language. Mansour heads Parliament’s human rights committee and was shown standing next to a torturer, advising him to lash his victim “gently.”
The government has charged Gawish with possessing pirated software and running an unauthorized personal website.
In the meantime, as el-Sisi denies freedom of speech and freedom of the press, we give Egypt roughly $1.5 billion a year in aid.
Source: NY Times
He’s a dork, he’s a dork. He’s a dork all the way. From his first Mouse ears to this last dying day.
Leading Egyptian Cartoonist Arrested After Satirizing Ally Of President El-Sisi
It is difficult not being cynical, in face of repeated human rights violations in Egypt and or lowered standards of living in the US, about the fact that the US government is allied with the Sisi administration and sent $1.45 billion of finite US tax dollars (Flint Michigan anyone?) to Egypt in 2015 under the guise of “foreign aid” of which $1.3 billion was squandered on Egypt’s military/security apparatus and thus flowed directly back into American defense contractor coffers and US politicians in the form of campaign contributions (thank you SCOTUS for Citizens United 2010).
The sentence below was excerpted from:
Everything You Need to Know about 2015 U.S. Aid to Egypt
By: Colleen Costello
12-15-2014
For FY15, Congress has appropriated $1.45 billion to Egypt: $1.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which covers defense articles, services, and training; and $150 million for the Economic Support Fund (ESF), which covers education, economic growth, and democracy and governance programs.
http://timep.org/commentary/everything-need-know-u-s-aid-egypt/
What happened to BarkinDog? I hear that the blog censors out folks who criticize the JT.
Where are the white women? Blazing Saddles.
Congress can withhold a symbolic million for each of these transgressions, however it is their country, their laws.
Well, it seems the regressive left, as some have come to call Progressives, in America must be on El-Sisi’s side. Have we already forgotten about the denunciations against the Garland, TX cartoon contest organizers and the massacred Charlie Hebdo cartoonists? And in Sweden, let’s not also forget jailed cartoonist Dan Park. And what about the more than 150 Democrat Reps who support Bill HR 569: Condemning violence, bigotry and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States? Not one Republican Rep is willing to support it! Well, at least that’s a plus for the elephant! And I’ll fight against it by drawing and publishing a cartoon critical of Virginia congressman/sponsor Don Beyer, as well as Nihad Awad, Exec Dir; Ibrahim Hooper, Communications Dir; and Roula Allouch, National Board Chair of CAIR, evident backers, which I’m doing right now. Aux armes citoyens!!!
G. Tod Slone, Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
http://www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630
The Western Nations should begin to hand out awards to these satirists and critics. Medals and financial awards a la the Nobel Prize system would send a strong first message to these feeble dictatorships. Literary, Art, and other categories could produce enough funds to mount a significant ‘outing’ of this scum. Erdogan and Sisi would be in the news on a constant basis. Asylum could also be thrown in.
What exactly are we buying when we give these countries money? Resources? Alliance? Military bases? What is the net tangible benefit?
The dictators of the ME must be laughing out loud at the foolish and profligate “leaders” of the US who insist on pouring billions into countries that don’t even pretend to share our values. I for one am sick of it. Imagine what $1.5 billion could do for the people of our country.