April 25th, 2013 → 5:29 am @ Lea // No Comments

“I would be loath to cast away my speech:  
for besides that it is excellently well penned,
I have taken great pains to con it.”  – Twelfth Night

Two countries that I have great respect and affection for, Turkey and Egypt, have both had disturbing crack-downs on free speech lately.  Turkey has not only become the world’s top jailer of journalists, but the recent arrest of Fazil Say on blasphemy charges is both ridiculous and disheartening.  And then there’s Bassem Youssef, the “Jon Stewart of Egypt,” who was recently interrogated by the government for his comedy show.  Doesn’t Mohammed Morsi know that the way to deal with criticism is to address it, not try to illegitimately get rid of it?  And what really bugs me about both these governments is that they crack down on anti-Muslim speech they don’t like, but vitriol against anyone else (i.e. Jews or Christians), well, that’s just fine.