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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Seaweed fever
By Lola Keilani, in Amman, and Nasser Arrabyee, in Sana'a
Jordanian courts are grappling with their first case based on charges of blasphemy and apostasy against a poet. A hard-line Islamist sued a prominent journalist and poet, Musa Hawamdeh, for "the desecration and ridiculing of Qur'anic verses," alleged to be found in his third collection of poems entitled My Tree is Higher.
For some nine months following its issuance this collection was on sale without any restrictions. Hawamdeh's publisher had obtained the necessary license from the Press and Publications Department of the Ministry of Information. Then, three months ago, copies of the title were quickly seized from book shops immediately following the filing of a suit by a Shari'a Court clerk against the author and "those who allowed him to publish the book."
The poet was summoned by police early one morning last week and taken to a Shari'a Court for questioning, only to be released a few hours later. According to the indictment, Hawamdeh, in two of his poems, "denied Qur'anic facts, defamed the Prophet Joseph, and went further to mock the Prophet Mohamed."
Hawamdeh's defense is seeking to have the charges dismissed on the basis that they are outside of the jurisdiction of the Shari'a Court. Under the Jordanian constitution this court's domain is limited to matters related to marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody of children.
Should the request be denied and the poet convicted, he faces being divorced from his wife, having his property seized and being deprived of his right to inheritance. According to the indictment, the only way Hawamdeh can avoid such consequences is to "repent and renounce his book."
Appearing before the court this week, Hawamdeh affirmed his faith in Islam and his respect for the Qur'an, asserting that his poems are of a metaphorical nature and open to wide interpretation. Hawamdeh, who is from Hebron, Palestine, said that for him the Prophet Joseph is a symbol of Israel which occupies his birthplace.
The Prophet Joseph, who lived in Palestine, is a much-used symbol for artists in the Arab world, but one that also seems to cause them trouble with the influential political-Islam trend. In Lebanon, popular singer Marcel Khalifa was acquitted late last year of a charge that he ridiculed the Islamic holy book when he put to music a poem by the renowned Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, which included a verse mentioning Joseph. A few years earlier, Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, was accused by Islamist lawyers of violating the Shari'a when he depicted the life of the Prophet Joseph in the film Al-Muhagir (The Immigrant). Chahine's movie was debated in courts for months. It was banned once by a low-level court, then re-released after Chahine won his case in a court of appeal.
The suit against Hawamdeh is also reminiscent of the case in Egypt in the early 1990s in which a court ruled that Cairo University professor Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid's writings on the Qur'an were heretical and ordered him to be divorced from his Muslim wife. Abu Zeid now lives in self-imposed exile in Holland.
The case against Hawamdeh was filed by a Saudi-educated member of the Salafi movement who is employed as supervisor of clerks at a small Shari'a Court in Marka, a tiny suburb of Amman. Salafis are a hard-line minority within the larger Islamist movement in Jordan. They do not enjoy the support of the mainstream Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor of Hamas, the Palestinian-led militant Islamist group popular in Jordan.
Although one Friday prayer leader called last week for immediate punishment of the poet whose "transgression" can only be rectified with "his blood," prominent Islamists were less enthusiastic about the law suit. Leaders of the Islamist movement in Jordan; such as Ishaq Farhan, Mohamed Duneibat and Leith Shubeilat; downplayed the significance of the controversy saying it was probably an attempt by the poet to try to obtain publicity for his work.
While interviews with the poet were carried in the press, there were no editorials dealing with the issue, whether in support of the suit or against it.
Like mainstream Islamist leaders, political analysts are also downplaying the significance of the suit. One suggested that Jordan does not have a culture of violence which might lead to someone taking up the challenge of the Friday prayer leader who called for "blood to cleanse the words written by the poet."
The same analyst predicted that the case would be referred to a civil court as a press and publication violation.
Shock waves radiated throughout the Yemeni cultural scene last week over claims by Islamists that a classic Yemeni novel, which was recently reissued, denigrates monotheistic religions. The novel, Sana'a, Madina Maftouha (Sana'a, An Open City) was written in the early 1970s by Yemeni novelist Mohamed Abdel-Wali, and recently serialised by the state-run, Ta'iz-based, Al-Thaqafia weekly.The Islamist-oriented Islah (Reform) Party, led by Parliament Speaker Abdullah Al-Ahmar, launched a fierce campaign against Al-Thaqafia which has carried installments of the novel during the last three months.
The campaign started when Islah Secretary-General Mohamed Al-Yadoumi, phoned the editor-in-chief of Al-Thaqafia, Samir Al-Youssoufi, to condemn the reissuing of the novel.
Al-Youssoufi characterised Al-Yadoumi's complaint as a "dangerous threat to freedom of the press, thought, and creativity."
In return, the Islah Party, along with leaders of Friday prayers throughout Yemen, characterised the reissuing of the novel as "an act of defiance against Islam and the feelings of Muslims."
Assahwa newspaper, mouthpiece of the Islah Party, denied in a front-page editorial that its secretary-general made any threats against the newspaper which published the controversial novel. "Al-Yadoumi only advised Al-Youssoufi to take into account that the newspaper is issued in a Muslim country, so it must be careful regarding religion," said Assahwa's editorial.
As the clamour heated up, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the formation of a fact-finding committee to investigate Islah's complaints. "The controversy over the republishing of Sana'a, Madina Maftouha was merely a result of technical confusion. The paper did not seek permission to reprint the novel, relying on the fact that it was printed, published, taught in universities and circulated throughout the country," concluded the committee set up by Saleh to investigate the issue. "Al-Thaqafia never intended to blaspheme God and all that is sacred," the committee added.
However, a few days later the editor of Al-Thaqafia was summoned by the prosecution following a complaint by a number of Islah members who accused Al-Youssoufi of reprinting a novel by a writer "known for his communist and atheistic views." The late Abdel-Wali lived in the formerly socialist Democratic Yemen. Judicial sources said that Al-Youssoufi was expected to stand trial soon.
The wrath of Yemeni intellectuals was further fuelled when the prosecution also ordered the confiscation of all the books and writings of the late novelist, who died in a plane crash in 1972, shortly after writing the novel.
In solidarity with the newspaper and its editor, the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate issued a statement decrying the campaign which it characterised as an attack on "freedom of creativity." The syndicate's statement said "Intellectual terrorism is no less a danger than corporal terrorism." It also called upon "all enlightened forces, intellectuals and actors in civil society to reject such oppressive practices and defend public liberties."
The Union of Yemeni Writers and Novelists also issued a statement in which it said that "the ferocious attack by those who want to achieve their own political goals would only serve the forces of illiteracy and backwardness."
The writers' statement added that they had been "awaiting the day when Mohamed Abdel-Wali will be honoured, but unfortunately we were stunned by the cruel campaign that described him as communist, atheist and non-believer."
Abdel-Wali is widely acknowledged to be Yemen's most prominent novelist. Among the writers who are said to have influenced him are Anton Chekov and the Egyptian writer Youssef Idris. Abdel-Wali's works show considerable concern for the plight of marginalised groups in Yemeni society. The son of a Yemeni man and an Ethiopian woman, Abdel-Wali was also interested in issues relating to Yemenis with a parent who is a foreign national -- a group known as the "Al-Muwalidin."
Sana'a, Madina Maftouha was translated in 1987 into French by the former French ambassador to Sana'a, who described the author as a "genius."
