Published in 2008, Dr Youssef Zidane‘s Azazeel (Beelzebub) created a stir, followed by resentment. Today – in 2010 – he is being accused of blasphemy and defaming Christianity and as insulting any of the ‘heavenly faiths’ is illegal in Egypt, Zidane could face up to five years behind bars. Back in 2008, Zeinobia described the novel saying: We got our own Da Vinci Code and our own Dan Brown whom the Church is currently fighting. Our Da Vinci Code is Azazel and our Dan Brown is Dr.Youssef Zidane, the historical researcher and the director of Manuscripts Department; as well as Supervisor of Acquisitions at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The novel is about Christianity in Egypt in the fifth century and the fight between the new religion and its believers from one side and the old pagan religions and its believers from another side. The hero of the novel is “Hiba”, the Egyptian monk whose mother, the Christian conspired with other Christians to kill his pagan father. “Hiba” had these conversations with his own Azazel inside him.The novel covers historical events that took place like the tragic death of Hypatia of Alexandria by the hands of the Egyptian radical Christians along with other events mostly theological ones based on real manuscripts from early centuries. This made the church angry and accuse Zidane of using biased and false resources as I read for instance “The Holy blood and holy grail” and some of the catharses beliefs beside fabrication of manuscripts “The novel starts with acknowledgment that it was based upon real historical manuscripts found in Syria” Nermeen Edrees reported that he won the Booker prize in 2009: Dr Youssef Zidane's controversial novel Azazeel has won the Arab Booker Prize for 2009. This is the second year in a row for an Egyptian to win this prestigious prize. Last year's winner was Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis. Juka - an avid reader – wrote a review saying: I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Zidane in person and can assure you he is nothing short of remarkably fascinating. True to his background and education he was an interesting conversationalist who could cite evidence to support his claims from holy books and literature across the ages in multiple languages. When asked about the title, he responded that religions since the dawn of time had offered versions of God’s or deities who represent the higher power and embody all that is good or righteous. With the rise of Judaism; man sought the other end of the spectrum, a higher entity which embodied all that is evil, for otherwise man himself would have had to bare responsibility for his evil actions, hence the birth of Azazeel. And Whispers from the Sea wrote: by shedding light on a historical period in Egypt and the Middle East and on the 5th century theological differences regarding the nature of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, underlines how religions – all religions – are often manipulated for wordly purposes/interests and how countless injustices and cruelties have been committed in the name of God. It is a message relevant to all religions whether Christianity, Islam, Judaism or other faiths and it is relevant to our present times as much as it was 16 centuries ago. History is evidence enough that no religion/faith can claim the upper moral ground when it comes to what its followers have sadly perpetuated in its name throughout the centuries. And it is the average man/humanity at the end that has paid a high price for this. Criticizing fanaticism, The Chronikler wrote a post titled: Following the lead of Islamists, Egyptian Christians are trying to ban an award-winning novel because it ‘insults’ Christianity. In this post, the blogger wrote: in recent weeks when a group calling itself (without a hint of irony) Lawyers Without Shackles tried to shackle the reading choices of Egyptians by calling for a ban of a newly released version of the classic One thousand and one nights saga, with its ensemble of popular and ageless characters, including Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sindbad. Their reason? The centuries-old collection is “obscene” and could lead people to “vice and sin”. Luckily, Egyptian intellectuals have rallied to defend the classic tales, warning against the increasing “Bedouinisation” of Egyptian culture. This is, perhaps, the most ridiculous example of the recent trend towards, what I call, the retroactive condemnation of published works. Not to be left out of the banning fad, Christians have also joined the fray. A group of Copts in Egypt and abroad have filed a complaint with the public prosecutor against the controversial novel Azazeel (Beelzebub) by Youssef Zidane, which won the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, an award backed by the Booker Prize Foundation.