Egypt's Minister of Culture Helmy Al Namnm opened on Saturday the 2nd round of Cairo Literary Festival, entitled "Literature is life", at Bayt Al-Suhaymi in Cairo. The ceremony was attended by a large number of intellectuals and thinkers from different countries, including the Czech author Michel March. The Egyptian Novelist Ibrahim Abdel Maguid delivered the opening speech of the festival. He stressed the importance of literature and the role performed by the independent cultural institutions. The festival organized the first seminar, led by Egyptian poet Ahmed Al-Shahawy and with the participation of Libyan Novelist Ibrahim Al-Kawny. The Libyan intellectual discussed a number of ideas, including identity, alienation and the value of desert that appeared in his works. Al-Namnm expressed his pleasure of the young intellectuals, stressing that they performed a major role in achieving "cultural prosperity". He added that the cultural progress will be achieved by the independent intellectuals not the governmental efforts, saying that the priority is for the independents. He added that Cairo University had been established by a number of Non-Governmental Organizations and young intellectuals, including Qassim Amin. He praised the speech delivered by Al-Kawny, stressing that there is no freedom without the feeling of safety, noting that the region has been destroyed since the US invasion to Iraq. However, the Egyptian official added "What happened in Libya was more terrible," stressing the need for separating the religion from politics. He said, "Down with ideology .. long live human."
