Egyptian comic Bassem Youssef, an outspoken critic of the Muslim Brotherhood, was recently ordered arrested by the Egyptian government for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and denigrating Islam.
On a recent episode of “The Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart defended Youssef. Early this morning, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo tweeted out video of the “Daily Show” segment (the video has since been taken down by YouTube but is still available here):
https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/status/319002302868516864
And, well, the Egyptian Presidency’s Twitter account didn’t like that and accused the embassy of helping to spread “negative political propaganda”:
It’s inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda.
The Cairo Embassy got into trouble with last year for its foolish, callous tweets on September 11, and, to the disgust of Americans and Egyptians alike, it waxed poetic over the “positive step” Egypt was taking post-revolution. Is being scolded for sharing a defense of free speech another positive step, embassy?
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For the record, the Egyptian Presidency has issued a press release on the Youssef matter:
https://twitter.com/EgyPresidency/status/319204237441642496
The release concludes with this:
We urge citizens to exercise their legal right to freedom of speech while respecting the rule of law.
But of course!
Will there be a press release about the U.S. Embassy in Cairo next?
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