The Ministry of Culture celebrated the 100th anniversary of Naguib Mahfouz’s birth on Sunday. The late Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988.
“Naguib Mahfouz’s centennial celebration is the best response to those attempting to tarnish this genius,” said Minister of Culture Shaker Abdel Hamid at a conference on Sunday.
Last week, a prominent Salafi leader and parliamentary candidate, Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, accused Mahfouz’s novels of “inciting promiscuity, prostitution, and atheism.”
In defense of Mahfouz, Abdel Hamid said: “Mahfouz had the ability to pick up on the most important components of human life and transform them into pure, enjoyable and beneficial creative material, whether in his books or movie scripts.”
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
