Egypt's religious authorities raided book stores and stands on Saturday, confiscating hundreds of publications as well as audio and video tapes they claim do not conform to Islamic teachings.
The raid came only three days after Justice Minister Faruq Seif al-Nasr granted Al-Azar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious institution, wide-ranging powers to ban and confiscate material it deems violate religious principles.
PHOTO: AP
Novels by secular writers and even unorthodox versions of the Islamic holy book, the Koran, were seized in the raids, raising concerns the religious establishment might use its new powers to suppress free thought.
Human rights groups and the liberal intelligentsia condemned the move, spearheaded by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center (IRC), as an attempt to stifle freedom of expression and warned that it could encourage violence against secular writers.
They mentioned two individuals in particular whose publications were targeted in the raids: Egyptian feminist writer Nawal Saadawi and researcher Ahmed Ismail.
According to the Egyptian Human Rights Center for Legal Aid, Ismail was assaulted by members of the extremist Salafist group, who denounced him as being an infidel.
The IRC demanded the confiscation of Saadawi's The Fall of the Imam, published nearly 20 years ago, for allegedly violating Islamic precepts.
The novel tells the story of a dictator surrounded by Islamic scholars, who use the Koran to justify the dictator's actions, even if that means giving false interpretations of verses in the holy book.
Alaa Abd El-Zaher, head of the IRC's videotape department, however, argued that the confiscations were only "limited to religious publications" and did not cover "literary works."
In the mid 1990s, the IRC recommended the suspension of renowned Egyptian film director Yussef Shahine's Al-Mohageer (The Emigre) and the banning of author Alaa Hamed's Voyage into the Human Mind, a philosophical reflection on faith and atheism.
The author was later jailed for six months.
Islamists also filed a case in court against Cairo University professor Hamed Abu Zeid, demanding that he be divorced from his wife.
They alleged that anti-Islamic writings had made him an apostate and therefore could not remain married to his Muslim wife, Ibtehal Yunis, a Spanish lecturer at Cairo university.
The couple was later forced to flee the country and live in exile in the Netherlands.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights expressed fear on Tuesday that the Justice Ministry's decision would lead to violations of freedoms, including of thought and expression, which are enshrined in the constitution.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS