No blasphemy against Religion

Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said that his ministry has not issued any publication that could be deemed in any way an affront to religions.

Minister of Culture, in a statement Wednesday before the People's Assembly, in response to urgent queries from deputies about Syrian Writer Haydar Haydar's novel "A Banquet for Seaweed" which was used as reason by students for the recent rioting at Al Azhar University, distanced his Ministry from any wrong doing and said all accusations, leveled at his Ministry, were aimed at securing political gains and satisfying electoral ambitions without regard to the consequences to national security.

Hosni voiced astonishment at the fact that no critic, writer or intellectual has called into question the purport of the book in circulation since 1983.

Egyptian Culture Palaces(Centers), affiliated to the Ministry published limited editions of the novel last November, Hosni said, and dismissed published reports on the book's blasphemous nature as willful incitement.

Haydar's novel only tells of preachers' replies to words spoken by atheists, the Minister said. "Would we then accuse Al Tabari and Al Ghazali (two prominent Islamic thinkers of the past) of blaspheming against Islam?," he asked rhetorically.

Asserting his Ministry's keenness on preserving Islamic heritage, Hosni cited the restoration of 137 Islamic monuments over the past ten years, including 60 mosques. Fifty-eight listed mosques are currently being renovated, he added.