Haidar Haidar
Haidar Haidar () (born 1936 in Husayn al-Baher) is a Syrian writer and novelist. His novel "Walimah li A'ashab al-Bahr" was banned in several Arab countries, and even resulted in a belated angry reaction from the clerics of Al-Azhar University upon reprinting in Egypt in the year 2000. The clerics issued a Fatwa banning the novel, and accused Haidar of heresy and offending Islam. Al-Azhar University students staged huge protests against the novel, that eventually led to its confiscation.