February 8, 2002

An Exiled Scholar of Islam

By DANIEL DEL CASTILLO

Nasr abu Zeid does a passable job of hiding his bitterness behind a warm smile. But after six years here, a continent away from his homeland, he cannot conceal his anger.

Mr. Abu Zeid's story is the stuff of nightmares. A professor and eminent Egyptian scholar of Islamic studies at Cairo University, he was propelled to notoriety in 1993 when a colleague who is an Islamist -- an advocate of fundamentalist Islamic political rule -- accused him of apostasy and of blaspheming

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