Copts seek censorship of prize-winning novel

Of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population of 78 million, approximately ten percent are Coptic Christians. Although the law nominally protects Muslims, Christians, and Jews from degradation and persecution, many Christians contend that they are not adequately protected from Muslim insults and retaliation. With the growing fame of Youssef Ziedan's historical novel Azazeel, they claim they must endure blasphemies that would have never seen publication if they had been targeted against Islam.

The book follows several fifth century monks who overhear and participate in unorthodox conversations leading to the early church's formation. The book won the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation. Ziedan, an Islamic scholar and philosopher who was born in 1958, is not a Christian.

Should all religious groups in Egypt be equally entitled to censor the other? Is a country that allows the majority opinion to fiercely stifle the freedom of expression of opposing viewpoints democratically required to stifle every viewpoint? Does fighting for the removal of Ziedan's book from shelves justify the silencing of all writers who would dare to challenge Islam's supremacy in Egypt?

If convicted of insulting Christianity, the writer could face up to five years in prison.

Festival of Writers in Prague

Beginning June 5 in Prague, the twentieth annual Festival of Writers will examine the writer's role as a societal heretic and political rebel.

Herta Muller, Gao Xingjian, and Derek Walcott, all Nobel Prize laureates, will attend the conference, in addition to eleven other writers from various countries celebrated for their heterodox writings and views.

Peter Matthiessen, a U.S. novelist, will receive the Spiros Vergos Prize for Freedom of Expression, named for the Greek poet who exiled himself from his country during a military dictatorship in the late sixties and early seventies in order to fight for the restoration of democracy.