We have discussed Carlos Latuff's many anti-semitic cartoons before. While he has been heavily criticized for them, as far as I know nobody has threatened his life because of them.But when he drew a fairly mild cartoon about the results of the Egyptian elections, all hell broke loose.
And his reactions showed him to be the classy guy we always suspected.
A Brazilian cartoonist whose caricatures against the former regime of Hosni Mubarak won him praise in the Arab world is now in the spotlight himself amid Egypt's divisive election.While you gotta hand it to him to at least note that Islamists winning the Egyptian election is not wonderful, it is hard to feel sympathy for such a sickening piece of trash.
Carlos Latuff's latest illustration, pointing to a sharp surge in support for Islamic candidates, was not received favorably Saturday by many Egyptians on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Reaction on Twitter was unexpectedly harsh, considering Latuff's series of cartoons encouraging pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, and his uncompromising criticism of the SCAF. The cartoons often showed up on signs in Tahrir square, he says.
But anger directed toward the latest caricature underscores resentment that outside interests still seek to dictate to Egyptians their political affairs, while often failing to distinguish between established religious parties and fundamentalists.
Adding fuel to the fire, Latuff shocked many of his followers by dismissing any criticism outright and responding with expletive-laden contempt, including one crude private message to a female tweeter.
Many said it was Latuff's hostility, not his cartoon, that sparked the outcry.
At the same time, Latuff said he had received multiple death threats in response to the caricature, while his supporters condemned the uproar as an attempt to stifle the artist's freedom of expression. They ridiculed as childish a campaign to "unfollow" him on Twitter.
