Thread by @ahauslohner

I suppose there's a lot (or not a lot?) to say about @realDonaldTrump's early morning re-tweetstorm of a far-right British politician's anti-Muslim propaganda. But just to provide a little more context on one video (because there was none): 1/3

The video is four years old. It's from Alexandria, Egypt in 2013, shortly after the military overthrew the country's first elected president (an Islamist, Mohamed Morsi) in a coup, and protest and violence had broken out in multiple cities across the country (2/3)

Here is a @hrw report from the time that links to the original video and also offers more facts and context (!!), if you're curious about the surrounding landscape at the time: hrw.org/news/2013/07/0… (3/3)

Another bit of context: this video is one of many horrific torture and execution videos that have emerged from the Middle East over the past 15 years. In some videos, it's ISIS or Islamists carrying out the violence. In others, it's government security forces (1/2)

Like the US-backed Iraqi security forces, or the US-backed Egyptian security forces, or Syrian security forces, etc. In short, authoritarian regimes and war zones are not known for justice or polite punishments. They're known for atrocities. (2/2)

And that tends to be true regardless of the religion of politics of those in charge. (For further reference, check out @KenBurns and @LynnNovick's excellent Vietnam war documentary on PBS.) #pt

Religion OR* politics, not religion of politics