Egypt suspends Islamist party

Religious students protested against controversial book

By Caroline Hawley in Cairo

The activities of Egypt's only Islamist party, the Labour Party, have been suspended.

The committee that regulates political parties said it took the decision because of internal splits, which emerged after the Labour Party was accused of inciting unrest over a novel which Islamists say is blasphemous.

The Labour Party's mouthpiece, the Al-Shaab newspaper, has also been closed until the dispute is resolved.

The Labour Party has long been a thorn in the government's side. It began as a socialist-oriented party in 1979, but adopted Islamism in the 1980s.

Through the Al-Shaab newspaper it has relentlessly attacked the government, and several of its journalists have been fined or jailed for libel.

'Shame'

But the roots of its suspension lie in a provocative campaign the paper recently launched against the novel A Banquet for Seaweed by Syrian writer, Haidar Haidar.

Al-Shaab described the book, first published in 1983, as a shame, that could only be erased with blood. For it, and the party, that appears to have been a step too far.

Not long afterwards, rioting erupted among religious students, and state-owned newspapers called for both the party and the paper to be shut down.

Alarm

A few days later, splits emerged within the party, which its secretary-general has accused the government of engineering. It is on these grounds that the party has now been suspended.

Members of Egypt's civil society, who have been fiercely critical of Al-Shaab's campaign, are nonetheless alarmed by the decision.

Egypt's leading human rights activist, Hafez abu Saadeh, called it a blow for democracy.