Egypt’s top intelligence official stated Tuesday that the 1940’s cartoon “Tom & Jerry” is to blame for the escalating violence in the Middle East, not radical Islamic terrorism.
“[Tom & Jerry] portrays violence in a funny manner,” Salah Abdel Sadeq said in a speech at “The Media and the Culture of Violence” conference at Cairo University. “It gives the impression that, yes, I can hit him, and I can blow him up with explosives. It becomes set in the viewer’s mind that this is natural”
Abdel Sadeq — who heads up Egypt’s State Information Service — further stated that violent video games also share part of the blame.
“Video games are spreading,” he noted. “it has become normal for a young man to sit for long hours playing video games, killing and spilling blood. He is happy and content with that.”
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Middle East Eye reports that Abdel Sadeq’s remarks caused a substantial stir on social media.
“Good, so Tom and Jerry are terrorists,” one man wrote on Twitter. “My niece loves watching it and if we stopped her we’d have to call the police.”
كويس ان توم وجيري إرهابيين عشان ريتال بنت اختي بتحب تتفرج عليه ولو متضايق منها اشغله واطلبلها الشرطة
— םבםב™ (@KekoO_MO14) May 4, 2016
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