The head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), Ambassador Salah Abdel Sadek, has attributed the rise of violence and extremism across the Arab world to children’s cartoon Tom and Jerry, video games and ‘violent’ movies. During a speech at a conference titled ‘The Media and the Culture of Violence’ at Cairo University, the Ambassador said that Tom and Jerry sets an idea in the viewer’s mind that violence is natural. “[Tom and Jerry] portrays the violence in a funny manner and sends the message 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,” said Ambassador Abdel Sadek. “Video games are spreading…[those] that came out recently with technological advancements. It has become very normal for a young man to spend long hours playing video games, killing and spilling blood and he’s happy and content,” continued the Ambassador, adding that young people are then faced with social pressures that push them to resort to violence, which they consider normal and understandable. After the SIS head’s statement, privately-owned Youm7 published an article titled “Five Accusations Tom and Jerry Faces…
Senior Egypt Official Blames ‘Tom and Jerry’, Video Games for Violence Across Middle East
May 4, 2016
