Mickey Mouse cartoons a crime in the new Egypt
Naguib Sawiris will face trial for tweeting a cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Islamic dress. He is charged with “contempt of religion.”
Tweeting a Mickey Mouse cartoon is now a crime in Egypt.
Coptic Christian billionaire, Naguib Sawiris, will face trial for tweeting a cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Islamic dress, Reuters reported today.
The liberal politician and media mogul is charged with "contempt for religion" by a Cairo prosecutor for posting the cartoon that outraged Egyptian Islamists last summer.
Sawiris deleted the tweet — which included the comment: "Mickey and Minnie after", in reference to Islamist popularity in post-revolution Egypt — and apologized for posting it.
Muslim-Christian tensions have risen since a popular uprising ousted decades-long dictator, Hosni Mubarak, last February. Sawiris' political party, the Free Egyptians Party, garnered between 10-15 percent of the vote in the country's recent parliamentary votes.
Pro-democracy activists rose up last year to fight for rights like free speech.
In October, over two dozen people taking part in a protest for Christian rights were killed when army soldiers and plainclothes thugs cracked down on the demonstration. Some of the protestors were crushed to death by army vehicles.