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Friday, April 30, 2010

Egyptian lawyers seek to ban "One Thousand and One Nights"

From Bikya Masr:
A new Hisba case has appeared in the Egyptian political arena this week after a number of lawyers calling themselves the Association of Lawyers Without Restrictions filed a complaint and submitted a copy to the Attorney General calling for the confiscation of the book “A Thousand and One Nights”. They are calling for the imprisonment of the publishers of the book from the General Authority of the Culture, claiming that the book “offends public decency.”

Hisba cases allow citizens to prosecute individuals who they deem to have insulted Islam, and, although fairly new to Egypt, they have been increasingly used against public figures.

A Thousand and One Nights does indeed have a number of passages that deal with matters that would make a Victorian blush.



But maybe the Egyptians are more upset at this story: