A FRONT of religious scholars at Al-Azhar University, Egypt, have branded this well-known Islamic thinker as an apostate. The government was asked to intervene: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was ordered to repent or—if he refused—face the death penalty. An appeals court also ordered that he be divorced from his wife, Dr Ebtehal Yunis. Cairo University, where he has taught since 1972, was also pressured to dismiss this professor of Arabic literature and