Like someone who has found a treasure, Adnan Dubb shows to his friends what he has bought at the fair. He emotionally turns between his hands books about political Islam by Muhammad al-Arifi, Ibn Uthaymeen and Sayyid Qutb, as well as the fatawas of Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya. “Unfortunately, I do not have enough money to buy the fatawas of Ibn Taymiyyah,” Dubb regretted.
Dubb is a student from Kairouan. He has come to Tunis only to buy books some ‘brothers’ told him about after they had been banned for many years.
Like someone who has found a treasure, Adnan Dubb shows to his friends what he has bought at the fair. He emotionally turns between his hands books about political Islam by Muhammad al-Arifi, Ibn Uthaymeen and Sayyid Qutb, as well as the fatawas of Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya. “Unfortunately, I do not have enough money to buy the fatawas of Ibn Taymiyyah,” Dubb regretted.
Dubb is a student from Kairouan. He has come to Tunis only to buy books some ‘brothers’ told him about after they had been banned for many years.
Farewell censorship!
Being organized in the Exhibition Palace in Karm between 2-9 November, the 29th Book Fair was the first since toppling Ben Ali’s regime, and exhibited many previously banned books, the foremost of which were religious and political books.
Shukri Bersali, a Tunisian publisher, says: “Islamic books, especially the fatawas of Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya and Ibn Taymiyyah, and some books which were banned under Ben Ali, are currently witnessing a great demand and their sales have been multiplying since the fair started.”
Twenty-three countries participated in the fair, with Tunisia having the greatest number of publishers (112) followed by Egypt (85) then Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia, which participated with 14 publishing houses and religious books in their entirety.
In addition to banned Islamic books, such as the books of Sayyid Qutb, Aaidh al-Qarni and Ibn Uthaymeen, Shiite books have participated for the first time since the 1980s. “For the first time, they have allowed us to participate. Thank God, Al-Sistani’s works are popular among visitors,” a Lebanese publisher said.
Freedom of extremism
While Dubb considers the current fair distinct and rich due to its various books, Jaber Hamza disagrees, “The books save the ones of extremism, witchcraft and sorcery, are poor.”
“It is true that freedom is the main gain of the revolution and should be established in such previously censored events”, says Hamza, “but the fatawas antagonizing freedoms, especially women’s, and the book of political extremism have taken advantage of such freedom.”
Abdulaziz Kahlawi, a professor of Islamic thought, says that the participation of many publishing houses with no censorship has given a good impression about the country and made the fair more attractive this year. “Readers are responsible for their choices since there is no guardianship or censorship over though, of whatever trends,” he said.
The de facto abolition of censorship has been made not only to religious books but also to many externally published political books, such as “Burj Ar Rumi” by Samir Sasi, a political prisoner of the Ennahda Movement, and the books of the Ennahda leader, Rashid al-Ghannoushi, and President Moncef Marzouki, in addition to other books, like “The End of Israel” and “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.”
Honoring
About the criticisms made against the fair management, its director, Kamal al-Din Qahhah, says that the organization of this fair under these circumstances, with no censorship, is an achievement itself. He suggests that this year the fair has honored struggle figures, such as French author and struggler Frantz Fanon and Tunisian author and critic Taoufik Baccar.
The fair this year was held after the cultural changes experienced by the Arab world and aimed, according to its organizers, at expanding the trading of books, promoting them, and liberating cultural and intellectual production.
Organizers stress that realizing these goals depends on the continuity of the abolishment of censorship over books and publishing, the elimination of all forms of restricting creativity and innovators, and the removal of all difficulties that hinder the flow of serious and creative knowledge.
This year, the fair, for the first time, witnessed a true partnership amongst the Ministry of Culture, the Union of Tunisian Publishers and book makers, whether authors or publishers.
One question, however, that arose from this event was: how to contribute to building a culture that respects freedom and diversity and rejects violence and intolerance under a torrential flow of books of intolerance and takfir (one Muslim naming the other an infidel).
