Novelist Hamid Abdel Samad was kidnapped on Sunday night, his brother Mahmoud Abdel Samad told Youm7.
The Ministry of Interior appointed special guards to protect Hamid after he was threatened by Islamists many times but he was in a special operation when he was kidnapped so the guards weren’t accompanying him.
Hamid called his interior ministry guard officer and said a black car was following him to Azhar Park in Cairo, where he was headed and waited for the novelist to finish his meeting. Hamid was missing afterwards and his phone was turned off, according to Mahmoud.
Mahmoud called the German embassy in Cairo because Hamid is a German teacher of Islamic History who works there. Mahmoud believes the kidnappers are Islamists because of the fatwas that forbid Hamid’s teachings, in addition to Islamist preacher Sheikh Abu Ishak El Heweny`s campaign against him.
Hamid Abdel Samad is a controversial novelist due to his unconventional point of view towards Islamic thought. He wrote two novels, published by Dar Merit; the first is ‘Wadaan Ayatoha al-Samaa’ (Goodbye Heavens,) about a young Egyptian man who was raped as a child and joins an Islamic group an adult, moves to Germany, where he changed his convictions about religion and people. The other novel is ‘Soqot al-Alam al-Islamy’ (Fall of the Islamic World.)
Originally published in Youm7.