Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's official Twitter account responded to the United States Embassy in Cairo tweet that promoted the response by American television comedic host Jon Stewart after his “counterpart” Bassem Youssef was charged with defaming Islam and insulting the president. “It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda,” Morsi initially wrote on the micro-blogging site. Then a short while later, after massive responses, the tweet was deleted by his account. But local media were able to take screenshots of it before it was taken down and the news has sparked numerous conversations on the topic. Youssef, using his wit, then tweeted at both of them, saying “guys calm down, there is bread and strawberries between us,” mocking the term Egyptians use, “to have bread and salt between us,” meaning “we are close as a family.” The TV host was released on 15,000 Egyptian pounds bail on Sunday. The prosecutor general had ordered the arrest of Youssef on charges of contempt of religion and insulting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Youssef hosts a weekly evening political satire show “al-Bernameg" (The Program) that has been a major success since it premiered in November on CBC channel. Several lawsuits had been filed against Youssef to ban his weekly show, accusing him of mocking Morsi, violating the social code of conduct and defaming religious scholars. BN
