Disturbance and Defiance

Following the kidnapping and murder of 21 Egyptian Coptic fishermen by the IS-militia in Libya, the cartoonists have turned their anger into a carefully undermining the symbolic expression of the IS.

Fadi Abou Hassan has made a call out for the freedom that he and his contemporaries have been fighting for; in his own words:

"Where is our freedom?

That is the truth in the Middle East now, unfortunately...ISIS kidnapped our revolutions against dictatorship. ISIS kidnapped our Arab Spring in Syria... Libya.... Iraq... etc."

Fadi Abou Hassan, Arab Spring??? February 19, 2015.

And yet, in her state of chock the Statue of Liberty manages to disturb and maintain an enlightened corner on the black surface, while the Shahada, i.e. the Islamic creed that the IS has applied to their flag, has been substituted by two crossed swords. A nod to the Jolly Roger in the stead of a religious allegiance of any kind. IS is violence and nothing but.

The day after the killings, Doaa Eladl portrayed defiance. She swapped the two rows of men, letting the Black Clad be trampled under foot by Egyptians of all persuasions in unison. The defiance is not primarily of a soothing nature, rather of the "damn it!" kind, the eyes in anger underneath having no more say:

Doaa Eladl, Walk Like an Egyptian, February 17, 2015.

The cartoons are courtesy of their artists and must not be reproduced without their permission.