Egypt's most famous contemporary cartoonist, Mustafa Hussein has had his work appear in virtually every issue of the country's most widely-read daily Al Akhbar, and in its weekly edition Akhbar Al Yom, since 1974. Though his popularity is largely due to his partnership with humorist Ahmed Ragab, who comes up with the jokes, Hussein has inherited the mantle of Egypt s senior cartoonist. In addition to his Akhbar work, he edits Caricature, Egypt's monthly cartoon magazine. He's a regular pundit on TV talk shows, appreciated for his dry wit. He claims to fit his drawing in between the hours of midnight and 4 am.
Cartoons are a continuation of politics by other means.
Thus runs the philosophy in Egyptian cartooning circles today. So with Egyptian political attention focused on the conflict with Israel, perhaps it was a little naive of artist Mustafa Hussein to think that he could team up with an Israeli-American cartoonist Ranan Lurie, and not spark a public outcry. The vehemently anti-Israeli weekly Rose Al Youssef launched a campaign against Lurie, Egyptian cartoonists signed a petition for his ouster and the Arabic edition of Cartoon News was dropped. Lurie still appears in Caricature, but Hussein expects that, within a few issues, the Artists' Syndicate will send him a letter declaring that publishing the Israeli's cartoons constitutes cultural normalization, and he will have no choice but to desist. Before Netanyahu, none of this would have happened.