Yes, you read that headline right; Salah Abdel-Sadek, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, spoke at a forum in Cairo last week. In front of reporters and public figures, Sadek was brought in to discuss violence in video games and cartoons and how it affects young people.

During the conference, Sadek was asked to give his opinion on the issue at hand. While giving his opinion, Sadek claimed, “[‘Tom and Jerry’] portrays violence in a funny manner and sends the message that yes, I can hit him… and I can blow him up with explosives. It becomes set in the mind that this is natural.” As one could probably predict, ridiculing ensued.

Here are some tweets from Middle-Eastern pundits ridiculing Sadek’s comments:

• “#ISIS fighters may have seen too many Tom and Jerry cartoons, in their childhood. Now the middle East is on fire https://t.co/eP1mTBeiKn“–Gerd Nisho
• “Egypt’s rulers must have been watching a lot of Tom and Jerry if this is the case https://t.co/LxfyrJIC2G“–Sarah Birke
• “Another masterpiece. Head of egypt’s state information service says tom and Jerry one of the causes of widespread violence in the Arab world”–Summer Said

The claim made by Sadek is just downright hilarious. This chaos in the Middle East has been going on for years, and Sadek seriously thinks that “Tom and Jerry” has something to do with it.