Mohamed Hasanein Heikal

Mohamed Heikal has for decades been widely acknowledged as the most influential journalist in the Arab world. Under his editorship, the Cairo daily Al Ahram became one of the world’s most often quoted newspapers. His weekly column in the influential paper was eagerly read as a reliable reflection of informed and official opinion in Egypt. Born in Cairo in 1923, he was for years a personal friend of Gamel Nasser, and served as a cabinet minister in President Nasser’s government. A skillful writer and leading Arab authority on contemporary Middle East politics, Heikal is the author of numerous books, several of which have been published in English.

Whereas “Holocaust denial” is a crime in France, Germany and some other European countries, skepticism of the familiar Six Million story is widespread in Arab and Muslim countries. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the charismatic Egyptian president and pan-Arab leader, said in a 1964 interview: “No one, not even the simplest man …