An Egyptian government official has blamed the animated Tom and Jerry series for allegedly spreading a culture of violence.
The accusations by Salah Abdel-Sadek, head of State Information Service, which is affiliated with the presidency, came at a forum held in Cairo this week.
“[The cartoon] portrays violence in a funny manner, and gives the impression that, yes, I can hit him, and I can blow him up with explosives,” Abdel Sadeq said.
Abdel-Sadek told academics, media specialists, and public figures who had gathered to discuss violence that video games and cartoons are to blame.
He said children see Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse “beat and blow up with explosives” one another and “in their minds, they see this as normal”.
“Video games are spreading… 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,” Sadeq also lamented.
Conceived by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Tom and Jerry dates back to the 1940s. “The cartoons are known for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation such as Tom using everything from axes, hammers, firearms, firecrackers, explosives, traps and poison to kill Jerry,” a Wikipedia entry on the cartoons points out.
Sadeq’s remarks are starkly at odds with the political reality of Egypt.
The Mideast country is struggling with a home-grown Islamic insurgency and regularly sees heavy-handed security measures used against protesters. Thousands of political dissidents are imprisoned.
