Amr Waked Apologizes to Arabs for Some Egyptians' Racism

Since his appearance on the TV show “Asfeen ya Rayes” (Sorry Mr. President) hosted by Tony Khalifa on Al-Kahera we Al-Nas channel during the holy month of Ramadan, criticism is following the Egyptian artist Amr Waked for his critical attack on all Egyptian presidents especially Gamal Abd El Nasser. Rumors had also been spread about the artist being of Palestinian origins, which he denied repeatedly but still the rumor has followed him, prompting him to stress his Egyptian nationality on his Twitter account.

Waked considered the attack he's under and claims of his Palestinian identity as ignorant. He tweeted: “Ignorance and racism are the fuel for extremism,” and refused to reduce all Palestinians to Hamas adding: “To all Egyptians who are judging Palestinians for Hamas, would you like Egyptians to be judged for the Muslim Brotherhood?”

The Egyptian actor also rejected some Egyptians attack on Palestine saying: “ What's all this cheap selling out of the Palestinian cause? I feel sorry for you, Egypt.” He then apologized to non-Egyptian Arabs for what he considered to be xenophobia and racism: “As an Egyptian, I apologize for all Arab brothers for some Egyptians' racism.”

Some of friends in the Twitterverse came to his defense. The young director Aida El Kashef tweeted: “A side subject but I hope we will stop talking about it soon because it's getting boring: I swear on my father's grave that Amr waked is Egyptian, he once played the role of a Palestinian, that's his job.”

Amr Waked played a Palestinian freedom fighter in the Egyptian movie “Ashab Wala Business."