After 15 years of self-imposed exile, controversial Islamic thinker Nasr Hamid Abu Zeyd is currently receiving intensive care at a hospital north west of Cairo. According to his wife, who spoke with Al-Masry Al-Youm by telephone, Abu Zeyd, an Islamic studies instructor, is in critical health.
“Nasr is suffering from a virus, and it will take him some time to recover,” said Ibtihal Younes, a professor of French at Cairo University. “His situation is severe but stable. It will take him two more weeks to get better.”
Abu Zeyd, who taught at Cairo University, was denied a promotion to full professor in 1992 due to his controversial research on Islam. In 1993, he was accused by Islamists of apostasy and his marriage was formally annulled by an Egyptian family court. Two years later, he departed Egypt for the Netherlands.
Among Abu Zeyd’s best known works are The Founding of Medieval Ideology and A Critique of Religious Discourse.
