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Al-Azhar Wants To Monitor Egyptian Books
contributions by Mohammed Gamal Arafa
CAIRO (IslamOnline) - Al-Azhar Univeristy, Sunni Islam's most prestigious seat of learning, has demanded a supervisory role over publications and works of art in Egypt only a few days after the government banned three novels for being "too permissive".
The al-Azhar Research and Publication Committee, which was previously instrumental in banning several books, told the 444-seat Egyptian parliament that it wanted a formal role in reviewing all publications and works of art before public release.
The country saw a tug-of-war between conservative and liberal intellectuals after Egyptian Culture Minister Farouq Hosni last week banned three novels and ordered them taken off local bookshelves. Hosni also sacked five ministry officials for approving the book.
Hosni's decision came after Islamist members of parliament questioned his "ultra-Westernized style" in running the affairs of the ministry and demanded the removal of explicit and irreligious books from the country.
The three books, "Before and After," by Tufiq Abderahman, "The Children of the Romantic Era," by Yasser Shaaban, and "Forbidden Dreams," by Mahmud Hamed are all fiction stories.
This recent banning of books comes less than a month after police arrested author Salahadinne Mohsen at Cairo Airport December 23rd. Mohsen, a self-published writer, was given a six-month suspended sentence last July for publishing a book unacceptable to the authorities.
Islamist members of parliament said Hosni was responsible for the spread of "porno-oriented ideas" in books sponsored by his ministry.
Egyptian liberal intellectuals retaliated by launching a campaign against the minister. Gamal al-Gheitani, editor of the weekly Akhbar al-Adab, questioned Hosni asking, "Does keeping the ministerial seat merit an alliance with the extremists?"
Several other intellectuals said they were boycotting activities of the entire culture ministry, including the upcoming Cairo Book Fair, the region's most prestigious intellectual event, in protest for what they said was the "gagging of the freedom of expression."
A liberal newspaper, Sawt al-Oma, ridiculed Hosni and ran a front-page collage of the minister resembling Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a spiritual leader of Egypt's most activist Islamist group, the al-Gamaa al-Islamia.
Abdel Rahaman is serving a life term in a U.S. prison for his alleged role in bombing some New York City landmarks in the early 1990s.
Ironically, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most popular Islamic group, also criticized the minister, although his views followed their traditional line.
"The minister has a long recorded of allowing permissiveness both in print material or in cinema houses," Mostapha Mash-hour, the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, told the weekly al-Arabi this week.
Last May, al-Shaab, the newspaper of the now defunct Islamically-oriented Labor Party, launched a campaign against the printing of Syrian writer Haydar Haydar's book "Walima Li Aashaab Al Bahr [Banquet for Seaweed]".
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