By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
Over the past few days Jon Stewart has taken Egypt and the new government under Morsi to task for arresting Egyptian TV comedian Bassam Youssef.
Youssef was arrested for insulting Islam and insulting President Morsi.
Stewart presented two excoriating pieces about Morsi about Egyptian democracy and about a duplicitous speech delivered by Morsi who, on the one hand, insults religion and, on the other hand, says religion should be respected and he respects all those who criticize him.
The Freedom and Justice Party - which is part of the Muslim Brotherhood - took to Twitter and defended themselves against Stewart and his attacks. Their intention was to call the US media hypocritical, to say that the media is really controlled by Jews like Jon Stewart.
What happened instead was that their Twitter feed became a link to a montage of rambling pieces mostly from al Jazeera. All of it was archival material and there was no real substance.
Stewart's attack against Morsi was brutal. He showed how Morsi explicitly promised to protect people like Youssef in an interview he gave to Wolf Blintzer on CNN. Blitzer specifically used several names including that of Youssef and the response by Morsi was: "they are my brothers" therefore they have nothing to fear.
One of the strongest lines delivered by Stewart was when he leaned forward, as if to say to Morsi directly, "when you are strong you do not have to be petty."
Unfortunately, we are now seeing just how petty new Arab leadership is. Dissent, any form of dissent, is simply not tolerated.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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