Play Book Tag discussion

Revolution for Dummies: Laughing through the Arab Spring by Bassem Youssef, is a somewhat misleading title for this book. The book starts with the Arab Spring, but it covers so much more than that. It covers political changes through several regimes, and it covers Youssef's dramatic career change from heart surgeon to YouTube satirist, to the star of the most watched program in Egypt's history. He patterned himself after Jon Stewart who became a friend and mentor. Youssef's show was eventually banned for insulting the new leader and military. Within a year, other people were jailed or even killed for doing much less than that. He eventually had to escape from Egypt. I think this book could be very interesting for people who are interested in journalism, comedy, activism, and television, as well a politics and culture.

The book teaches us a lot about Egypt's political culture, often in a humorous way.l The author is now living in the U.S. and he often compares events to US politicians or events, for both comedy and understanding. The attitude of the older generations in Egypt were sometimes similar to those patriotic Americans following 9/11. If you insult the military, it can be interpreted as not supporting our brave soldiers (our children, nephews, etc.) But his military has gone far beyond what we would support. I know I didn't absorb everything, but I did learn quite a bit from this book. Despite the humor it was tough to get through.

The book covers several repressive regimes in Egypt during the first half of this decade, including the Islam Brotherhood, caliphates, and a military coup that installed el-Sisi (who Youseef describes as fascist). Some of these opposing groups sought to replace their legal system with Sharia law, which would be akin to replacing our legal system with ancient rules from the bible (e.g. stoning women accused of adultery). One group pushed for other changes similar to those in Afghanistan, including stripping women of all rights, and destroying ancient art, including the pyramids! (The Taliban destroyed ancient (huge) statues of the Buddas.)