Tipsheet

Egyptian President Calls for Punishment of...American Filmmaker

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, hasn't said a word publicly about punishing those responsible for the violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy in his country or in Libya, but he is calling for an American filmmaker to be punished for offending Muslims. Sorry buddy, that's not how the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution works.

While the main filmmaker behind an anti-Islam movie attacking the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud goes into hiding amid protests in Egypt, the country’s president, Mohamed Morsi, is demanding that the Egyptian Embassy in Washington take legal action against the team behind the controversial film. According to the official Egyptian state news agency Wednesday, Morsi requested that the embassy take “all legal measures” against the filmmakers, though it’s not clear what that entails.

Morsi came to power after the United States sided against Dictator Hosni Mubarak at the beginning of the Arab Spring more than a year ago.