The Unholy Alliance Between The Egyptian Government and The Islamists

500 intellectuals signed a petition charging that the coalition between the Islamists and the regime against the culture minister Farouk Hosni (who recently criticized the "Islamic" veil) exemplified "the depth of the collusion between corruption and fundamentalism". Alaa al-Aswani, who wrote the best-selling novel "Yacoubian Building", also defended Hosni in the name of freedom of expression. "It is utter hypocrisy and it shows the convergence between the Islamists and this regime in an attempt to gag the Egyptian people and stop them from thinking," he said.