Saturday, September 26, 2015

Elias Muhanna on Tariq Mitri: are we talking about the same man, here?

"Mitri had persuaded General Security to overturn bans on several plays and films, and had developed a reputation as an advocate for artistic freedom."  Are you kidding, Elias?  This man was appointed as a tool of Fu'ad Sanyurah, who in turn was a tool of Hariri family, which is a tool of the House of Saud.  But Mitri only spoke for freedom of expression for art that is offensive to Iran, and wanted to suppress opinions which are offensive to the clergy and to the Saudi regional alliance. This is the man who wanted to impose a code of press censorship on all media but the media boycotted it and it was shelved.  More importantly, this is the man who AS CULTURE MINISTER sued his critics, including me.  And in this article, he also seems to lie to Elias.