Websites of Qoll, Mada Masr, +18, Zahma have issued a joint statement in the wake of a two-year sentence against Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji over charges of "outraging public decency". Here is the statement: With deep concern, we have followed the two-year verdict against novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji for publishing a chapter of his novel that the Court considered offensive public decency. Intellectuals and writers have imagined they were far from the republic of fear that governs us, and that creative freedom was guaranteed, especially in light of related articles in the Constitution. But the marks of violation became clear as in cases of Islamic researcher Islam Buhairi, the poet Fatima Naaot, and Nagy. Thus, intellectuals are no longer immune from storms of interdiction and incarceration. The last sentence increases fears into the hearts of writers and intellectuals, but is a shining proof that what applies to others applies to them as well. However, the final sentence proves that the state attempts with all its might to destroy the minds of its citizens, intimidation and imprisonment are no longer confined to its political enemies and leaders of protests, but anyone who is able to think differently. In a country where economic and political strengths were lost because of rulers, and its culture only remains, such a sentence for extracts from the novel should not be ignored, but seen in the context of sowing fear, which eventually resulted in destroying the country's capabilities, including cultural ones that have long represented Egypt's face among Arabs and worldwide. Even the security situation that the current regime claims to maintain could be exploded at any moment. What is the traditional state defending then? The active minority to which Naji belongs, that is able to change and to introduce new solutions, is unified today in his defense for the sake of the special area of imagination. And it will not rest until releasing fantasy acquitted it of the charge of "outraging public decency". signature: Qoll Mada Masr + 18 Zahma
