The Mantra of ‘Change’ Makes Arab Autocrats Nervous
November 18th, 2008 by Tariq
Daoud Kuttab writes in the Huffington Post about how the Egyptian government sought to expunge a newspaper cartoon that hoped for change in Egypt much like the one seen in the U.S. election. “The weekly stated that 150,000 copies of the paper’s first edition were quickly removed from the streets and destroyed and the ‘troublesome’ phrase disappeared from future prints that day.”
Moreover, “The Egyptian government’s overreaction is a sign of the concern that moderate pro-US Arab regimes fear as a result of the US elections and the de-escalation of the so called War on Terror. As long as ideological Washington was engulfed in this war, repression of genuine democratic activities was ignored. Arab leaders used their special alliance with the Bush Administration in the war on Islamic fundamentalists to act against all opponents including secular opposition like that of Ayman Nour.”
Posted in Egypt, Election 08, Freedom, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media |
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
November 18th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
[…] Though Abdelaziz Bouteflika was quick to congratulate Barack Obama on his electoral victory this month. Leaders in France, Russia, Germany, Kenya and elsewhere also greeted the new American president enthusiastically. In the Levant, where Americans are most heavily invested, there was a recognition that Obama is but a man, and that despite their hopes the first black American president would not significantly change course on Middle Eastern affairs, at least as far as evidence presently indicates. Algerians, themselves dealing with matters of their own presidency, watched the election from a somewhat different vantage point (though surely not necessarily exceptional). […]