A cartoonist who drew the Arab Spring Uprising looks to bring change to America, along with a new perspective of global events.
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“You shouldn’t say everybody is a savage [just] because they don’t agree with us.”
This is the mindset of Khalid Albaih, a political cartoonist who was arrested and interrogated in Egypt. The reason for his arrest wasn’t because he was violent—nor because he stood with the wrong people during the Arab Uprising.
He was arrested simply because of his art–and the message it conveys.
According to an article published by The New York Times, Albaih is one of the few, if not the only Middle Eastern cartoonist to challenge freedom of expression in the name of social good. His goal is simple: to give Western America a different view of the violence that took place during the Arab Spring Uprising, to let America know that not all Arabs who took part in that violence—or violence in general—are beasts and “savages”. For Albaih, this is a personal movement that’s still alive—more tan five years after the dust has settled.
In fact, it was because of his arrest in Egypt that he shifted the focus of his art to The USA—and it wasn’t a decision made in vein, as Albaih says himself:
“I don’t know if cartoons can change the world, but we can certainly try.”
It must be doing something, because Albaih’s art has been displayed on banners and graffiti walls around the world as a symbol of peace–proving that while art may not change the world, nothing or no one will ever stop it from trying.
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