Syrian literati miss Iran’s congress on Islamic awakening literature

TEHRAN,Feb.6(MNA) -- Certain Syrian literati have not been invited to the International Congress on Islamic Awakening Literature, which opened in Tehran on Sunday. They were bypassed for the event due to a lack of Islamic elements in their works, the organizers said in a press conference on Saturday. Asked about the absence of Nouri al-Jarrah, Ghada al-Samman and Ali Ahmad Said Asbar (Adunis) at the congress, the congress secretary said, “Not only are they not categorized as Islamic awakening poets but also they are very distant from Islamic views.” “Thus, despite their place in Arabic poetry, they could not be allowed to participate in the event,” Qasem Shariatmadari said. The uprisings that hit Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain over the past year are officially referred to as the Islamic awakening in Iran. About 80 literati from Islamic countries have been invited to the two-day congress, which has been organized by Iran’s World Assembly of Islamic Awakening (WAIA) and the Art Bureau. The congress was organized to show that the uprisings are Islamic, public, and ‘anti global arrogance’, WAIA Secretary General Ali-Akbar Velayati said during the opening ceremony of the event. “The congress is also aimed at building a consensus among the ummah to support the divine values as well as to reinforce the resistance against the global arrogance, Zionism and those who back them,” he stated.