Cartoons for starters

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]
Thanks to the Internet, I have been able to carefully examine
Egyptian, Arab, and international cartoons since 1998. In that year, I
began presenting a weekly programme called Gomaa Koll Gomaa
(Gomaa every week) on the Nile News channel, where I chose one key piece
of news and demonstrated how cartoonists dealt with it across the
world. After a decade of looking in-depth into local and domestic
cartoons, I have developed an insight that I wish to share with you.
For starters, all cartoonists in the world take an interest in their
local concerns, which are their absolute priority. And, when they
comment on regional and international events, they are often influenced
by the views and stereotypes of their society as well as by their own
intellectual, ideological, and religious prejudices.
Let's now look into detail on three regions of the world: America,
Europe and the Middle East.
AMERICAN CARTOON: American cartoon was perhaps the most prolific in
the period I am examining. Since the election of George W Bush, American
cartoonists have drawn attention to the shallowness of the president's
thinking and his ignorance in world affairs.
A big change took place after 9/11, when all cartoonists stood
firmly behind the US leadership in an attempt to boost the spirits of
the American people and rally the nation behind the war on terror. They
backed the Bush administration during the Afghanistan war and rallied
behind its effort to track down Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.
Unfortunately, they also started drawing parallels between their
nation's experience with terror and that of Israel, a country that has a
problem not with terror but with legitimate resistance.
When the neocons drove the country into a war with Iraq on the
pretext that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling mass destruction weapons and
helping Al-Qaeda, American cartoonists were in two minds. Some
supported the war on Iraq and others opposed it. Still, American
cartoonists began to expose the twisted mentality of the neocons, who
were only making excuses to control Middle East oil. Eventually, most
American cartoonists became opponents of the war.
American cartoonists, among the first to ridicule US attempts to
dominate the world, exposed the perils of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
American cartoonists had no qualms exposing the subservience of
Britain to the US. They were the first to depict Tony Blair as Bush's
poodle.
American cartoonists commented on most world events. Almost all
American cartoonists took the side of the Bush administration against
Iran and its alleged nuclear programme. None pointed out that Israel has
nuclear weapons.
American cartoonists approached the Palestinian issue from a
standpoint of complete bias to Israel. Even when Israeli leaders
changed, American cartoonists commented on their policy only in a timid
way, while being utterly dismissive of the Arabs and Palestinians.
Most American cartoonists regard Arabs and Muslims as backward and
ignorant fanatics with a penchant for violence.
EUROPEAN CARTOON: Although most European cartoonists didn't oppose
the war on Afghanistan, many ridiculed the war on Iraq and made fun of
America's bid for world domination.
The image of Arabs is less stereotyped in Europe than in America,
perhaps because Europeans are closer to us geographically and
historically. Still, the bias against Muslims is common, fuelled perhaps
by terrorist attacks in the continent. Cartoons offensive to Islam
depicting Prophet Mohamed in a negative light were reprinted across
Europe in defence of free press. The emotional and ill-conceived outrage
of the Muslim world only served to make matters worse. To America's
credit, the offensive cartoons were not reprinted in the US.
Some European cartoonists sided with the Palestinians, showing
sympathy to the Arab cause during the Palestinian Intifada, uprising;
the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and then against Gaza.
ARAB CARTOON: Arab cartoonists continued to defend pan-Arab concerns
throughout the period, although some got their cartoons banned in
certain countries in the region. The Palestinian issue remained a
priority for many cartoonists. Some cartoonists took particular interest
in exposing Israeli-US interference in Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.
We in Al-Ahram Weekly have showed great interest in regional
and international issues. We don't seem to be commenting that much on
domestic politics, perhaps because it is hard to know where to begin,
and end