As Morsi goes to trial, General Sisi should remember: Egypt is a dangerous place to rule. The erstwhile President appears in court at a tense time even by Egypts standards. We do not, of course, know the future fate of the man who chucked Mr Morsi out of power – the Beloved and Sublime General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi – who has yet to tell us whether he will stand for the Egyptian presidency. Watch out, is all I can say to him… ‘We are not amused’ is certainly the governing trait of Egypt’s current rulers, some of whom worked for Gen Mubarak and at least one of whom – the Beloved and Sublime General, no less – worked for Mr Morsi. Take the case of Mohamed Youssef, Egypt’s kung-fu champion and gold medalist at the St Petersburg championship last month, who was unwise enough to wear a T-shirt with the pro-Morsi symbol of four fingers of a hand held up against a yellow background. He wore it at the medal ceremony, he said, to remember friends among the victims of the massacre at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in July. Too bad. He was flown home early and temporarily banned from taking part in competitions, with the full support of the Egyptian Minister of Sport. This weekend, Bassem Youssef – brain surgeon and political humourist par excellence amid Egypt’s tawdry television shows – also got his come-uppance. Not once did Mr Morsi –while in power – respond to Youssef’s scurrilous and constant attacks on him and his Brotherhood friends, but one new programme that mocked the new, unelected Egyptian government, including the Beloved and Sublime General – though not by name – led to the station pulling Mr Youssef’s show. According to his critics, there were just too many obscenities in the programme on Egypt’s CBC channel. His supporters claim he will just move back to YouTube, where he began life as a satirist. And the programme that got censored? It was going to send up the country’s slovenly press. independent.co.uk/voices/comment/as-morsi-goes-to-trial-general-sisi-should-remember-egypt-is-a-dangerous-place-to-rule-8919862.html
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 20:32:37 +0000