Date of source: Saturday, November 27, 2004
Interviewing 18 Egyptians, including bishops, and one American, about major issues in religious freedom in Egypt and the importance of AWR work
Date of source: Monday, June 28, 2004
In December 1976, Mamdouh Salem, then Minister of Interior, issued a
decision to cancel censorship on books and newspapers. This was one way President Sadat aimed at
presenting himself as democratic. The editors and the managers of the newspapers were appointed
by the president himself and thus...
Date of source: Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Gamal Al-Banna has authored over hundred books among which is "Mas'ouleyit fashal al-dawla al-Islamiya fil asr al-hadith" [The responsibility of the failure of the Islamic State in the modern era] whose banning was recommended a few days ago by the Islamic Research Institute under the pretext of...
Date of source: Wednesday, September 15, 2004
The Azhar overstepped its judicial mission as stipulated by the 1961 law, namely "protecting the Holy Qur'an and Prophetic hadiths from corruption." The Azhar claimed guardianship over religious thoughts, arts and literature, which contradicts with the constitution, the law and principles of...
Date of source: Monday, September 27, 2004
A conference on the freedom of expression was lately held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in
cooperation with both the Reform Forum, affiliated with the Bibliotheca, and representatives of
freedom of expression from Norway.
The conference reviewed Arab and Norwegian reports about
the statuses of...
Date of source: Friday, October 1, 2004
Holding the conference on freedom of expression at the same time of the second annual
conference of the National Democratic Party is a mere coincidence. The difference between the
official view of reformation and what the Arab intellectuals aim at, is clear. Each view seems as
if it is related...
Date of source: Tuesday, October 5, 2004
Dr. Moussa Hawamda, a
Jordanian poet, has become very famous in the last five years after the recent campaign against
his collection of poems My Trees Are Higher issued in fall 1999. Moussa Hawamda who was brought
before the Jordanian court five years ago and then sentenced to six months...
Date of source: Sunday, October 17, 2004
The heated
controversy in Egypt over the statements of the writer Usama Anwar Okasha has been escalated. In
a press article, Okasha attacked the Companion of the Prophet Amr Ibn Al-‘As and made some
accusations against him, which some people considered an insult to Amr Ibn Al-‘As.
- See art. 7...
Date of source: Sunday, June 6, 2004
The
Alexandria Document on the “Problems of Arab Reform: Vision and Implementation" presented a
vision of the change which Arab intellectuals aspire for in the Arab World, along political,
economic, social, cultural and civil society axes.
The aspired reform calls for giving civil
society free...
Date of source: Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Renowned writer Usama Anwar Okasha, in
an interview with an independent weekly newspaper, dwelt on the reasons why he declined to
venture into historical figures in the scripts he wrote for TV series.