The Egyptian Secularists movement has announced the suspension of its activities after 15 years, citing a mounting financial crisis and an inability to pay rent for the venue that hosted its recent events.
The movement’s founder, Ahmed Samer, said in a video posted Wednesday that the decision was not a call to rescue the project, but rather reflected “the end of an experience exhausted by economic burdens.”
Samer added that the movement had organized more than 860 events over its 15-year history; ranging from cultural salons and literary clubs to “Secularists’ Cinema” screenings, and book club sessions, before it was forced to stop because of what he described as a “crushing financial crisis” that had accumulated over recent months.
The movement had tried to contact several figures who attempted to resolve the crisis, but they failed to secure the continuity of its activities, Samer said.
He explained that the movement had relied throughout its years of activity on self-funded efforts, and on limited funding from only two members, saying the current economic conditions had made continuing “beyond our capacity.”
Speaking to Al Manassa, Samer said that the decision to suspend activities was not linked to any security pressure or political fears, but rather to a worsening financial crisis.
He noted that the rent for the venue had risen from 7,000 Egyptian pounds ($134) a month five years ago to 25,000 pounds today, adding that the emergence of donations or donors later would not necessarily mean the movement would return to its activities.
According to Samer, the most likely scenario is that the suspension will be permanent, although some filmed material from previous seminars and meetings is still being edited and will be published in the coming period.
At the end of his message, Samer said the movement “spared no effort” in trying to make the project succeed over 15 years. He thanked everyone who contributed to supporting the movement or participated in its activities over the past years.
The Secularists movement was founded in January 2011, and over the years it has taken the form of a regular intellectual and cultural salon, hosting hundreds of seminars and discussions on topics related to religion, secularism, philosophy, civil society, history, and political and social ideas.
The movement’s activities included discussions addressing varied issues related to the constitution and religion, the state, as well as the relationship between religious texts and knowledge and history.
Among the topics the movement discussed over the past years were “Religion and the Constitution in Egypt from the 1923 Constitution to 2014,” “Religion and Renaissance,” “The Syriac Presence in the Qur’anic Text,” and “Tensions in Biblical and Qur’anic Narratives,” alongside events addressing Arab philosophy, anthropology, and the humanities.
The movement also expanded its activities to include film screenings, critical readings, and intellectual debates, including a discussion of the film “Strawberry War” with actor Mahmoud Hemeida and professor of contemporary philosophy and aesthetics Dr. Hassan Hammad.
