Saudi Arabia bans prominent Palestinian authors from Riyadh book fair

[Duvdevan]

Communist trash.

Well-known anti-Muslim.

Nobody cares. Go read it yourself. 99,9% of all Saudi Arabians are not interested in communist propaganda and anti-Muslim propaganda.

And you trust some fat royals to tell you what's good for you and what's bad for you?

You trust them on which books should be banned?

We in Israel can get this 'palestinian' poet - yet he's banned in the heart of Arabia.

 

[Falcon29]

He is anti-muslim and communist so good for Saudi Arabia even though I obviously am at odds with their leadership.

 

[al-Hasani]

And you trust some fat royals to tell you what's good for you and what's bad for you?

You trust them on which books should be banned?

We in Israel can get this 'palestinian' poet - yet he's banned in the heart of Arabia.

My Moroccan friend, he is not banned. His books were removed from a state-sponsored book fair in Riyadh due to their anti-Muslim and communistic material. Whoever wants to read his work can read it on the internet or in all the book stores in the country. Not during state sponsored book fairs.

Very simple.

 

[Duvdevan]

He is anti-muslim and communist so good for Saudi Arabia even though I obviously am at odds with their leadership.

One of the few symbols that 'palestinians' have who isn't a terrorist - and you hate him.

No surprise there.

 

[Falcon29]

One of the few symbols that 'palestinians' have who isn't a terrorist - and you hate him.

No surprise there.

ZIonists are terrorists and are my number one enemy for life, God has blessed us to stand against injustice and wicked people. You'll never succeed with your plans, just know that terrorist.

 

[Duvdevan]

My Moroccan friend, he is not banned. His books were removed from a state-sponsored book fair in Riyadh due to their anti-Muslim and communistic material. Whoever wants to read his work can read it on the internet or in all the book stores in the country. Not during state sponsored book fairs.

Very simple.

Whatever mate. If you're happy for a family who rule your country to decide which books you read, then enjoy your life of censorship.

ZIonists are terrorists and are my number one enemy for life, God has blessed us to stand against injustice and wicked people. You'll never succeed with your plans, just know that terrorist.

Yankee, God has never stood with you or blessed you, hence we gave you an ***-whooping each and every time you got uppity.

And this will happen again.

You have so many internationally proscribed terrorist groups in your territory, that I've often thought it would be easier for the international community to just declare 'palestinains' as terrorists.

 

[Falcon29]

Whatever mate. If you're happy for a family who rule your country to decide which books you read, then enjoy your life of censorship.

Arabs aren't your mates, don't familiarize yourselves with us, we are your number one enemies. Arab Muslims will deliver justice against the illegal state of Isntreal, we will never give up our cause against injustice.

 

[al-Hasani]

Whatever mate. If you're happy for a family who rule your country to decide which books you read, then enjoy your life of censorship.

They are not banned. You can buy his books in book stores across the country and probably find his material in libraries as well. They were just removed from that particular book fair in Riyadh. Anybody can look up his material on the internet as well.

The family is not ruling a whole country. Most of the important advisers and people behind the scene/curtain are not from the Al-Saud family and I have no problem with strong rule or a centralized rule. The ordinary Joe in the UK are not part of any real decision making either nor does he have any influence when it really matters.

The most important thing is stability, economic prosperity and improvements on various fields. As well as not messing with people's religion, culture, customs etc. People are satisfied. They have no major reason to protest.

This is why KSA is so different from any other state out there.

Even the House of Saud got into power through majority support of the people. It were popular movements that facilitated their rule.

Patriotism is big in KSA. Even more so in the younger generation.

 

[Falcon29]

Yankee, God has never stood with you or blessed you, hence we gave you an ***-whooping each and every time you got uppity.

And this will happen again.

You have so many internationally proscribed terrorist groups in your territory, that I've often thought it would be easier for the international community to just declare 'palestinains' as terrorists.

There's no such as thing as an international community, there are European colonialists(Europeans, Americans, Israelis) whom fixate things to their advantage to achieve world domination and this system is well known around the Islamic and Arabic world. God has already blessed us with an unbreakable will, Israeli's can't break our will. This blessing is the key to Jerusalem.

 

[Duvdevan]

They are not banned. You can buy his books in book stores across the country and probably find his material in libraries as well. They were just removed from that particular book fair in Riyadh. Anybody can look up his material on the internet as well.

The family is not ruling a whole country. Most of the important advisers and people behind the scene/curtain are not from the Al-Saud family and I have no problem with strong rule or a centralized rule. The ordinary Joe in the UK are not part of any real decision making either nor does he have any influence when it really matters.

The most important thing is stability, economic prosperity and improvements on various fields. As well as not messing with people's religion, culture, customs etc. People are satisfied. They have no major reason to protest.

This is why KSA is so different from any other state out there.

Even the House of Saud got into power through majority support of the people. It were popular movements that facilitated their rule.

Patriotism is big in KSA.

Ok, so this 'ban' is debatable and maybe not a total ban.

Even so, unless a book actually calls for violence or is overtly racist, is there any legitimate reason to ban?

What if a Saudi friend of yours wanted to read Dawkins? what if a Saudi friend of yours decided to become an atheist? would you grass him up to the religious police?

Arabs aren't your mates, don't familiarize yourselves with us, we are your number one enemies. Arab Muslims will deliver justice against the illegal state of Isntreal, we will never give up our cause against injustice.

I've probably had more Arab friends than you will ever have, yankee.

I used to go every week for a feast at my friend's Arab village and they used to come to my house in Haifa and chill in the back garden. They always brought me watermelons.

You aren't worth a hair on their head, yankee.

 

[al-Hasani]

Ok, so this 'ban' is debatable and maybe not a total ban.

Even so, unless a book actually calls for violence or is overtly racist, is there any legitimate reason to ban?

What if a Saudi friend of yours wanted to read Dawkins? what if a Saudi friend of yours decided to become an atheist? would you grass him up to the religious police?

Read the article that you posted in this thread. It says it all.

It was because somebody called the religious police in Riyadh due to apparent blasphemous material being sold. In the past such book fairs have been used to spread harmful, either extremist or satanic, information.

No idea who Dawkins is but if he propagandized that then of course.



Besides there are quite a few atheists like anywhere else. But they are without influence nor can they hijack a whole country.

The fact is that the vast majority of the Saudi Arabian population support status quo with a few modifications compared to the minority that want to emulate San Francisco of the 1970's.

No outsiders will succeed with forcing alien ideologies or systems on people that are mostly satisfied.

Of course there are also unwanted elements that are spreading propaganda on the internet such as this Saudi Arabian women:

The reality is that we are under siege and face a vicious propaganda campaign against our country from nearly everyone.

 

[Falcon29]

Ok, so this 'ban' is debatable and maybe not a total ban.

Even so, unless a book actually calls for violence or is overtly racist, is there any legitimate reason to ban?

What if a Saudi friend of yours wanted to read Dawkins? what if a Saudi friend of yours decided to become an atheist? would you grass him up to the religious police?


I've probably had more Arab friends than you will ever have, yankee.

I used to go every week for a feast at my friend's Arab village and they used to come to my house in Haifa and chill in the back garden. They always brought me watermelons.

You aren't worth a hair on their head, yankee.

The Jew is calling me a Yankee, we all know the city of New York should be the Israeli state.

No Muslims befriends a European colonialist, justice will come soon.

 

[Duvdevan]

Hasani, you have not heard of Richard Dawkins? oh, you'll love him

So do you think it should be allowed in Saudi to have books about atheism?

As for Saudis wanting the status quo, how do you know? has there been a referendum in the country?

As for Saudi being under siege, that's always the excuse of regimes. Remember how long Mubarak had a state of emergency in place

---


Yankee. You are American born and have a Yankee accent. You're as American as apple pie.

 

[al-Hasani]

Hasani, you have not heard of Richard Dawkins? oh, you'll love him

So do you think it should be allowed in Saudi to have books about atheism?

As for Saudis wanting the status quo, how do you know? has there been a referendum in the country?

As for Saudi being under siege, that's always the excuse of regimes. Remember how long Mubarak had a state of emergency in place

---


Yankee. You are American born and have a Yankee accent. You're as American as apple pie.

1) Why should I? I don't like propagandists of atheism. People who chose not to believe in God but who keep it for themselves are another matter. We had/have non-religious Saudi Arabian users on PDF. Let alone in real life.

2) So books are needed for people to question their beliefs? Atheists always existed. What are books about atheism needed for? You don't think that every person had doubts about their beliefs at one point in their life at least?

3) Well, we know that for an certainty. If not they would have rebelled long ago. It's been nearly 100 years by now and any form of social unrest can be counted on one hand. Compare that to virtually every other ME country outside of the GCC and you do the math. We are indeed blessed.

4) Not under siege in the literal sense of the word since KSA happens to have cordial and close relations to nearly all world powers, excluding Russia, Arab countries and Muslim countries but in the sense of the amount of propaganda thrown at the country by outsiders. Often certain media.

 

[Duvdevan]

I'm just a believer in an open society because this is natural.

You're fighting against it now, but in the end Saudi will open up and there will be bra-burning feminism, democracy, freedom of press etc.

Maybe even in our lifetimes this will happen.

I'm not sure if the Saudis not rebelling is a good enough indicator of Saudi happiness in their system. Many Saudis are kept a bit isolated from material which would give them freedom of thought (although this will change now with internet...using proxies to bypass bans )

For example, you cannot say that the North Koreans enjoy being starved in concentration camps - yet they have not revolted against the nation.


As for your country being under attack, I have some sympathy with this. I know as a Jew and Israeli that it's not a nice feeling to see your country dragged through the mud. Many westerners judge Saudi on western standards. Saudi is usually the yardstick used for oppressive rules.

Only a change to democracy will help with the image I feel.

The other interesting thing about Saudi is that some on the hard left of politics hate Saudi but not for the reasons you might think. They hate Saudi for being aligned with the US. People like George Galloway hate Saudi but love Iran because Iran is belligerent towards the USA.

It's a strange world.