The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
PRESS
RELEASE
In the Face of Cultural Violence |
The Organization denounces incitement against writers and artists.
9/5/2000 The EOHR expresses its alarm over the apostatizing campaign against two = writers published by the Ministry of Culture, those being the Syrian = novelist Haider Haider, author of the novel Feast of the Sea Algae, and = the Egyptian novelist and critic Edwar Al Kharrat, author of the book = Poetry of Modernity in Egypt. This campaign has extended to include the = officials of the Ministry of Culture, and the Organization regrets the = discourse used in this campaign of accusations of apostasy and treason, = which has reached the extent of direct and clear incitement to assault = artists and officials by publishing their addresses in one of the = newspapers. The EOHR is aware of the sensitivity of the relationship between = artistic and literary works on one hand, and religion and politics on = the other. This relationship over the ages has been the basis of grave = violations of the rights of persons of letters and words specifically, = and of political liberties in general. The organization believes that = the judgement of literary and creative works on religious or political = grounds threaten to impose religious or political custodianship on human = thought, especially since experience has proved that religion and = politics are always subject to different interpretations by those who = try to impose custodianship. However, what has caused the gravest alarm to the organization is the = violence of the discourse of the critics of these literary works, and = the organization fears that the cultural and intellectual debate takes = the direction to what we might call cultural violence, which could erupt = into bloody political violence, especially since previous experience has = proven that a number of writers and artists who were exposed to similar = campaigns ended up as victims of physical violence, which cost some of = them their lives. The assassination of the secular thinker Farag Foda = and the attempts to assassinate novelist Naguib Mahfouz and journalist = Makram Mohammed Ahmed are not far from our memory. It should be noted = that the investigation of these previous cases proved that the = perpetrators had never read the works of their victims, but were incited = by discourse similar to that of which we warn now. The organization = expresses its alarm about this apostatising campaign on the grounds that = the right to free expression and literary, artistic, and cultural = creativity are constitutional rights that have to be respected and = safeguarded, and calls upon intellectuals and civil society to work = against these apostatising campaigns to put and end to this growing = phenomenon of cultural violence, and urges the state to carry out its = duty to protect freedom of expression, belief, literary and artistic = creativity The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) E-maileohr@link.com.eg Webpagehttp//www.eohr.org.eg Tel+20-(2)-3636811 +20-(2)-3620467 Fax +20-(2)-3621613
