EGYPTIAN police have arrested the son of a poet and playwright who posted his father’s unpublished and allegedly obscene magnum opus on the web, his lawyer said on Sunday. Shohdy Naguib was arrested Thursday night on charges of “distributing immoral materials” for having published his father’s poem on a server outside of Egypt. The prosecutor ordered Naguib’s release on bail on Sunday. The poem is often referred to as the “Ummiyat” (roughly, “Mother Verses”). The poem uses highly graphic language, and has been described by one critic as “a direct and forceful stream of abuse, invective and lyricism” aimed at Egyptian officialdom, whom Surur blames for losing the 1967 war against Israel and other failings. Surur, whom many Egyptian critics consider to be a troubled poetic and theatrical genius, died in 1978. Although the Ummiyat was never published in his lifetime, it has been available on-line for at least three years. – AFP