Date of source: Monday, May 8, 2000 to Thursday, May 11, 2000
Mohammed Al-Qudusi asked the intellectuals, in a long article, to sign a statement which condemns the officials of the Ministry of Culture whom he described as "Freedom enemies and creation falsifiers", after their intervention in the poetry anthology of Abdel Wahab Dawoud. They add and eliminate...
Date of source: Saturday, May 13, 2000 to Friday, May 19, 2000
The demonstration of the Azhar students revealed a lack of self confidence, not a strong faith. Islam needs not to be rescued in a country like Egypt.
Date of source: Monday, May 8, 2000 to Thursday, May 11, 2000
Hundreds of people gathered at the conference of the Labor Party to protest and condemn the controversial novel "Banquet for the Seaweed". They urged the state to destitute the Minister of Culture. Adel Hussein, the secretary-general of the Labor Party, claimed that there is a Zionist plan and...
Date of source: Thursday, May 11, 2000
Afaq Arabia ran an article by Abdullah Al-Tahawy saying that some weak and uncreative writers find insulting Islamic values the shortest way to be famous. Some writers want their books to be banned, then they can run to Human Rights Groups and the Leftists and start wailing about the lack of...
Date of source: Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Al-Midan published Haider’s interview with the BBC in which he confirmed that the novel has many parts that support Islam. He thinks that what was mentioned by Al-Shaab was to achieve political gains.
Date of source: Sunday, May 14, 2000
The writer of the article stated that his knowledge about Haider’s novel came from newspapers. Then he recounted what has been written about the novel, starting by the article of Hassan Nour and ending by Abass’ strong article in which he stated that
one of the characters in the novel said that "...
Date of source: Friday, May 12, 2000
Al-Shaab carried out a fierce campaign against the novel "Banquet for the Seaweed". It opened with an article which stated that the people’s outrage against the Minister of Culture has transferred from the Azhar University to the Faculty of Islamic Studies. Page 3 showed the opinion of some...
Date of source: Friday, May 12, 2000
Security Police continued to siege the Azhar University City and the near by buildings. Families of students on strike arrived on the scene to seek information on their children. However, security personnel did not allow them to enter the compound.
Date of source: Friday, May 12, 2000
At a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Interior, University Rector and professors, students of the Azhar assured that they trusted the Government’s initiative in wisely handling the matter of the "Banquet".
Date of source: Friday, May 12, 2000
Dr. Omar Hashem, Rector of the Azhar University, threatened to ask for police intervention, if students wouldn’t cooperate to end their hunger strike peacefully.