Althouse: "A court found Egypt’s most popular comic actor guilty on Tuesday of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy..."

April 24, 2012

"A court found Egypt’s most popular comic actor guilty on Tuesday of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy..."

"... alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists here after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak."

37 comments:

chickelit said...: A chilly wind blows an arab spring.; 4/24/12, 7:36 PM
Rick said...: I am sure that Obama is not alarmed.; 4/24/12, 7:38 PM
damikesc said...: That Arab Spring --- great plan. Getting rid of Mubarak for a MORE oppressive regime.; 4/24/12, 7:43 PM
rhhardin said...: That's how organized crime works.

The thugs take over.

It's the third world economic organization. Hit the guy on the head and take his stuff.

The distribution of power and stuff is in proportion to how many heads you hit.

We're in transition to it in the US.; 4/24/12, 7:46 PM
traditionalguy said...: Mubarack was close go death. It was a succession plan for him that was lacking apart from one where his cronies finished looting the country and left.

The Muslim leaders have a hope to share in the loot, but they are viyng for power using the dirty murdering SOB method of Muslims dedicated to killing Jews and Christians. 12% of the Egyptians are the ethnic Egyptians that are Coptics who were there since 80 AD which was 500 years before the Muslim conquest out of Arabia.

The poor and illiterate are near starvation, and ALL they have left to cling to is a fatalistic faith in a black meteorite named Al.; 4/24/12, 7:53 PM
garage mahal said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/24/12, 7:57 PM
garage mahal said...: That Arab Spring --- great plan. Getting rid of Mubarak for a MORE oppressive regime.

Which is why I always thought removing Saddam was probably a stupid idea. Certainly ROI.

Baghdad, in its heyday, and pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom, had colleges and hospitals that rivaled anyone in the region. Even Tel Aviv in some cases. Oh wait.....nevermind!; 4/24/12, 8:04 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: An Arab Spring doesn't get a strongmen fresh.; 4/24/12, 8:05 PM
edutcher said...: How do you say "Dachau" in Egyptian?

Assuming they let him live, of course.; 4/24/12, 8:05 PM
chickelit said...: Garage is a cultural apologist for Saddam Hussein! LOL!

He literally will back and support anything to make Bush look bad.; 4/24/12, 8:13 PM
Lyle said...: Democracy can allow the majority to thrive and squelch the minority.

If Islamism is popular in Egypt, Islamism is popular in Egypt.; 4/24/12, 8:19 PM
Wince said...: What I found more frightening at the NYT link was the ad for...

"Enter to Win Dinner with Barack"

Ruff! Ruff!; 4/24/12, 8:36 PM
Bob B said...: garage mahal said...

Which is why I always thought removing Saddam was probably a stupid idea. Certainly ROI.

Baghdad, in its heyday, and pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom, had colleges and hospitals that rivaled anyone in the region. Even Tel Aviv in some cases. Oh wait.....nevermind!

You forgot to mention the trains ran on time!; 4/24/12, 8:36 PM
Joe said...: This was fairly predictable, but it still offers more opportunity toward positive change than had nothing happened.; 4/24/12, 8:44 PM
Joe said...: Another word for all the pessimists; revolutions don't happen overnight. They may take years or decades of false starts, and many mistakes, before they finally achieve lasting change.; 4/24/12, 8:47 PM
Carnifex said...: Wiping out Saddam and his regime was not a bad idea. Trying to start a democracy in a seventh century society was, and is. Same with Egypt, same with Syria, same with Jordan, etc...

Garage missed the start of the whole thing. When Carter replaced the Shah. No smarmy words for the peanut president garage?; 4/24/12, 8:48 PM
edutcher said...: You'd have to do what the Limeys did in Inja. Stay for a couple of hundred years, impose your institutions, and offer the "suttee" option to any who want to retain the old ways.

Needless to say, you'd face something like the Sepoy Mutiny at least once, which would have to be put down the old-fashioned way.

Today, India is a good friend and an ally, but it was something of a bumpy road to get here. Of course, India is also Hindu, so Carnifex raises an interesting point: is the only way republican government can work in Islam is to impose a reformation on Islam, a religion which imposes a 7th century society on any country that observes it?; 4/24/12, 8:59 PM
Revenant said...: Baghdad, in its heyday

The 1200s?; 4/24/12, 9:05 PM
george said...: We seem to only back popular uprisings in countries that are our allies while passing on chances to back the rebels in countries that are our enemies. Iran especially was ripe for a revolution and we wouldn't have had Islamists at the front of it like in Egypt and Libya.

It is almost like our enemies are running our foreign policy.

Luckily, it is the Middle East so it is not as if there is a positive outcome to be had. But we didn't have to help things along in the wrong direction.

The funny thing is that the Egyptians just kicked Jimmy Carter's little NGO out of the country and is not going to honor the peace treaty with Israel... at least not without extorting us for large amounts of cash. Funny how the last failed president's only accomplishment is being ruined by the current failed president.; 4/24/12, 9:27 PM
Quaestor said...: garage mahal wrote:
Baghdad, in its heyday, and pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom, had colleges and hospitals that rivaled anyone in the region.

And who attended those wonderful colleges, and who got treated in those super-modern hospitals? Marsh arabs? Kurds? Shi'ites?... (crickets) who? Tell me those exemplary institutions weren't just for the Baath party nomenclatura.; 4/24/12, 9:32 PM
Lyle said...: What Joe said.

I'll add too, the French Revolution was quite revolting.; 4/24/12, 9:32 PM
ed said...: Rule #1: Anything Obama touches turns to crap. -Anything-.; 4/24/12, 9:48 PM
William said...: I supported the invasion of Iraq. I believed Cheney when he said that we would be treated as liberators. In a world where people act in their rational self interest that should have been the case. But that's not the way it worked out. Does anyone in that part of the world even recognize that there is such a thing as rational self interest? The perfidy of the Jews and the Americans and the honor of their women trumps all other problems in their societies. Potable water? Fuck that. There's nothing in the Koran about potable water. Those health workers are using alcohol swabs when they administer innoculations. Rip the limbs of a few of those impious creeps and Egypt's problems will be solved.; 4/24/12, 10:10 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Jeezus - the guy was separated at birth from Jackie Mason!; 4/24/12, 11:41 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: "... Baghdad, in its heyday, and pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom, had colleges and hospitals that rivaled anyone in the region. Even Tel Aviv in some cases. Oh wait.....nevermind!.."

You don't even try to keep your mask on anymore do you?; 4/25/12, 7:18 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Why is this a suprise when Islamists gain power? This happens everytime. It's like expressing shock that water is wet.; 4/25/12, 7:23 AM
Anonymous said...: is not going to honor the peace treaty with Israel

The last thing anybody in Egypt wants right now is a war with Israel. There's absolutely zero indication that Egypt is planning NOT to honor the treaty.

a religion which imposes a 7th century society on any country that observes it

What the heck does this even mean? You seem to indicate seeing as a history of "Islam comes the world, everything somehow stops, and then we have now" kindof history. But you're talking 1500 years of history between those two points and it's history filled with changes and developments and the involvement of several civilizations, including the Muslims from Arabia, the Persians coming into the picture, the Ottomans Turks (who let's not forget ruled a huge portion Europe) all the way up until the rise of twentieth century party-politics-oriented nation-states.; 4/25/12, 7:56 AM
SGT Ted said...: Good thing they got rid of Mubarek, huh?; 4/25/12, 8:01 AM
SGT Ted said...: When I was in Bagdhad, those schools were still in operation, so were the hospitals. The difference is that the hospitals no longer handed dissidents over to Saddam to be tortured and killed and the Schools were no longer exclusively for Baath Party member and their families.

When it comes to Iraq, you don't know shit about shit.; 4/25/12, 8:07 AM
SGT Ted said...: What the heck does this even mean?

Go live there for a year. You will know exactly what he is talking about, even if it was just a figure of speech.

And just because your rational western mind knows that the last thing they need is a war, they aren't thinking like you do, not one bit. Get that through your head.; 4/25/12, 8:14 AM
SGT Ted said...: ie: what the Ottoman turks did there doesnt mean shit to them.; 4/25/12, 8:15 AM
Carnifex said...: @PARTRIDGE

Yes, all those "great" civilizations you mentioned...but you forgot "Ozymandius"

So tell me, when was the last time a muslim in a muslim country won a Nobel for science? Or had an advanced discovery in medicine? Or actually fed their own people?; 4/25/12, 8:18 AM
Contrarian Catalogue said...: Carnifex said...
Garage missed the start of the whole thing. When Carter replaced the Shah

LoL, Wut?; 4/25/12, 9:12 AM
Anonymous said...: Go live there for a year. You will know exactly what he is talking about, even if it was just a figure of speech.

As I sit here in my apartment in Cairo, which I have been in for a year now, the irony of this statement strikes me as hilarious.; 4/25/12, 10:23 AM
Anonymous said...: SGT:

When you can read every word of this:

http://www.ahram.org.eg/

and this:

http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/

I think you'll have a right to begin a discussion with me about what I need to get through my head.; 4/25/12, 10:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Or actually fed their own people?

You make the Islamists point for them.; 4/25/12, 10:30 AM
Carnifex said...: @Partridge

Islamist only feed other muslims. Ask a Copt the how much charity they get from the "Brotherhood".

And you still are deflecting. Which Islamic culture is actually ready to enter the 21st. century.

Which Islamic state is ready to actually be considered civilized by not stoning innocent women, or even allowing women to drive without fear of their lives. Which Islamic country allows bibles to be held in possession of even non-muslims.

Oh that's right! There are none.

I could go on. but enablers gonna enable.

@Contrarian

Close your mouth son, your lack of education is showing. Plus it will draw flies. Wut indeed.; 4/25/12, 4:00 PM