CAIRO: A number of intellectuals including famed poet, Ahmed Abdel Mutie Higazy and author Gamal El Ghitany have filed a complaint at the Public Prosecutor's office against Muslim cleric, Youssef El Badry for inciting violence against them. This latest case comes after El Badry filed a string of cases against a number of writers wrote in favor of Higazy following a legal dispute with the cleric. El Badry filed his case against Higazy in January 2003 in response to an article written by Higazy in 2002 in the Weekly Rose Al Youssef magazine. The article reportedly compared El Badry to members of the Jewish Shass party, who advocate the establishment of a theocracy in the state of Israel. Earlier this year, El Badry won the slander case against Higazy, giving the cleric the right to a generous financial compensation and costing the poet his furniture through a court repossession order. Higazy reacted to the repossession order by making the legal claim that the furniture was owned by his wife, occluding the implementation of the repossession. "A number of intellectuals that have been pursued by El Badry's lawsuits have filed a complaint against him for inciting violence against them and questioning their religious identity, Higazy told Daily News Egypt. "Any extremist can understand El Badry's words as a fatwa or permission to kill, Higazy added. "El Badry is a representative of a stream that believes in prohibiting those with different views than its own from expressing themselves. It believes in shutting people up, he explained. Higazy said that he will continue to fight the legal battle to prove that his article was not slanderous and also to prompt Rose Al Youssef to pay a part of the LE 20,000 compensation ruled by the court for El Badry. "All I did was express my opinion on the extremist streams that are taking over Egypt today. It was in no way a personal attack but a representation of an opinion, Higazy said. Higazy also accused El Badry of saying in a newspaper article that he will "cut Higazy's flesh until he pays the LE 20,000 compensation. "The case they are filing against me is nonsense, they are transforming a case of slander into a freedom of speech case, El Badry told Daily News Egypt. El Badry also accused the writers of using double standards against him because they were critical of him when he sought "legal action, when they themselves are now resorting to the same weapon.
