After the Egyptian government arrested TV political satirist Bassem Youssef on charges of insulting President Mohamed Morsi and Islam (he has been released on bail), his fellow TV political satirist, Jon Stewart, came to Youssef’s defense in a brilliant segment on “The Daily Show” (available on YouTube for a change):
The US embassy in Cairo tweeted a link to the video, provoking this reaction from the Egyptian authorities:
.@usembassycairo @thedailyshow @drbassemyoussef It’s inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda
— Egyptian Presidency (@EgyPresidency) April 2, 2013
Update: Unfortunately the Cairo embassy then shut down its twitter feed. However:
A State Department official [said] Wednesday that the decision to take down Embassy Cairo’s Twitter page was made by U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson without the consultation of the State Department in Washington. Foggy Bottom is urging Embassy Cairo to put the page back up, lest it appear that the United States is caving to the online pressure.
The twitter account has now been restored, minus the tweet linking to the Stewart segment.
Further update: The Jon Stewart segment with Arabic subtitles has got more than 220,000 views.