Insulting religion or Mursi?
Bassem Youssef, the satirist, appears once a week on the CBC channel in Cairo. But it seems this one time was enough to anger Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi who came to power following a revolution that sought freedom and dignity.
Mursi has made a mockery of the revolution, providing opportunities to other regimes to take a dig at his rule. They must be saying: “Look, the man is busier than Mubarak, chasing journalists and TV channels…What type of revolutions are these in which their leaders cannot tolerate a weekly television show.”
The paradox is that President Mursi previously made too many promises. He promised many a time that he would protect all sorts of freedom. Once during a television interview, he used Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab’s famous quote: “If I deviate from the right path, correct me.” A man responded to Al-Khattab saying, “(We swear), Omar, if you do, we will correct you with our swords.” President Mursi said: “If I make a mistake, correct me.”
During one of his speeches in the past, he showed graciousness by saying, “there is a journal casting aspersions on me but I have not still shut it down!” But it seems now he has run out of patience given the volume of his complaints against journalists. The charges against scribes within half a year reached four times of what a 30-year reign of deposed President Hosni Mubarak could make. They have also reached 24 times the number of cases witnessed during the era of former President Anwar Sadat.”
It has become clear that the presidency cannot take criticisms in its stride, and perhaps it is gearing up for more battles ahead.
Youssef was accused of disrespecting both Islam and the president. Will the public believe this lawsuit? The difference is huge between a movie that is not screened or a book that is not read and a popular show that is watched by millions. Perhaps Youssef has become more popular than the president himself. Arresting Youssef or preventing him from doing his show, will destroy this president’s image, as Mursi appears to normal men as a good father figure.
Youssef did not disrespect a religion, but he has practiced what the Egyptians are known for — their love of ridiculing people within their society.
Using religion to scare rivals will not be believed by anyone, and it will not put an end to criticism. Even if Mursi oppresses the Egyptian media, he will not stop people from ridiculing him. Deposed President Mubarak failed to do so. Mubarak tried in the past to achieve this by using the judiciary, terrifying people and offering materialistic temptations, but his information ministers failed to silence journalists and writers. Finally, the then-information minister came up with an idea. It was to compete with local media instead of suppressing it. But now, the situation is harder due to the presence of social networking websites and due to the increased sense of freedom among the Egyptians given by the revolution.
The number of new channels launched in Egypt after the revolution has reached more than 16. Half of these channels are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which Mursi belongs to. So why does he get angry when he is in control of state channels and when there are Brotherhood and Salafist channels with him? The reason is that media figures are attracted to the opposition more than they are to the government. And therefore Mursi now occupies Mubarak's place, in his palace, using his television channels and thinking in the same manner on how to lock up journalists and stave off criticisms in general. But an additional feature that Mubarak lacked and that is he linked himself with the religion.
Mursi has done it all for observers of revolutions to mock them. Nothing has changed since the fall of Mubarak except that there is another Mubarak who is called Mursi!
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