Hundreds of Tunisians stood in queues near metal detectors before entering the Tunis International Book Fair (TIBF), held from March 27 – April 5. Their smiles showed no signs of boredom from the long wait and no complaining about the strict security measures imposed by the TIBF management.

Ashraf Sehili, 32, was looking for extremist religious publications that may have contributed to thousands of young Tunisians joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “Thank God, there were no such books in the TIBF this year,” he said smiling.

Hundreds of Tunisians stood in queues near metal detectors before entering the Tunis International Book Fair (TIBF), held from March 27 – April 5. Their smiles showed no signs of boredom from the long wait and no complaining about the strict security measures imposed by the TIBF management.

Ashraf Sehili, 32, was looking for extremist religious publications that may have contributed to thousands of young Tunisians joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “Thank God, there were no such books in the TIBF this year,” he said smiling.

A civil activist, Sehili believes the time has come to “address all mechanisms attracting our young people to the ranks of terrorist organizations. Takfiri books, which the Tunisian government allowed in 2012 and 2013, sought to interpret the Quran and the Hadith and urged Muslim youth to embrace a new way of thinking called ‘jihad against tyrants and infidels.’”

Diverse books

TIBF Executive Director Abdulhamid Mrewi says the TIBF administration took all precautions to prevent the circulation of such books and sought to diversify the fair in which 269 publishers from 20 countries were showing over 100,000 books.

“The TIBF this year was held under the slogan ‘let us read,’” says Mrewi. “Intellectual seminars and lectures were organized to raise awareness and highlight the importance of living in a civil state,” he said. “The books satisfy all segments of people searching for themselves within intellectual and cultural books and novels.”

The absence of the books of ISIS, sorcery and religious extremism were replaced by books explaining the spread of global terrorism and its emergence in a number of Arab and Islamic countries. The books purported to explain why adolescents and adults join ISIS and take up arms against Muslims and people of other religions.

This year, terrorism related books were unexpectedly best sellers. All  copies of the ‘Under the Banner of Punishment: Tunisian Salafist Jihadists’ by journalist Hadi Yahmud had run out before the fair ended.

Yahmud believes that the success of his book is due to the importance of the subject, i.e. the direct causes of terrorism in Tunisia. “Since early 2013 and with the assassination of Chokri Belaid, the most important question that has arisen is ‘who is behind the acts of armed violence?’” said Yahmud.

He argues that the book has filled a real void in the media and cultural landscape in Tunisia regarding the origins and historical and immediate causes of religious violence. The book has been heavily in demand since its release.

Hankering for books explaining extremism

Yahmud’s book was no exception. In less than two days, Tunisians bought 700 copies of ‘Harm’s Way: From al-Qaida Stronghold to ISIS’ Lap’ by former Al-Jazeera reporter Yosri Fouda. This prompted others yearning for knowledge about the details of Fouda’s experience with extremists to seek other ways to get a copy.

“Tunisians snapped up books deeply analyzing extremism and its origins, evolution and new strategies in an attempt to understand the status quo of which terrorism is a major problem,” said Tunisian writer Kamel Riahi. “These books expose the mechanisms of takfiri thought since the 1970s. The same applies to Abdel Bari Atwan’s book ‘The Islamic State,’ which topped Dar Al Saqi Publishing House sales and was only preceded by my novel ‘The Rascal’s Mistresses’, which was the best-selling book in the TIBF.”

Riahi says his novel does not talk about terrorism, but answers the question: Why modern Tunisia is the primary source of terrorists? It talks about evil farms and how hatred is bred in in the family under class struggle, pervasive poverty and collapsed values. Thus, literature is essential to understanding the reality and getting out of the crucible of depression caused by political disappointments.

Age of savagery

“My book is crude, like our reality, and it exposes society’s diseases of hypocrisy, betrayal, pretension, opportunism and racial discrimination, more like the American dirty realism movement or the generation of anger that appears after every crisis, war and uprising,” said Riahi about his novel.

“I wanted to write about the current Tunisian and Arab human without makeup and I looked through the novel at the world from another angle that seemed necessary,” he said.  Riahi’s novel has become popular among young people, especially women.

Interest in political and intellectual books

But the absence of ISIS books from the TIBF does not necessarily means it was successful, says journalist Karem Sharif who owns Editions Karem Sharif which participated in the TIBF.

“The turnout for the TIBF was below expectations and lower than before the revolution,” says Karem. “Statistics indicate that no more than 60,000 visitors attended the TIBF this year. This is because the TIBF management was weak administratively and culturally, and the post-revolution ministers of culture have failed to protect the authentic and established culture.”

There was a high demand for political and intellectual books, including ‘Arab Autumn: On the Contradiction between Democracy and Revolution’ by thinker and researcher Dr. Ayman Boganmi, a teacher at the Sorbonne, and ‘Religion and Politics between Rushing of Seculars and Failure of Islamists’ and ‘Critique of Fundamentalist Mind’ by Tunisian researcher and thinker Sami Brahm, as well as the books of former Tunisian President Dr. Moncef Marzouki.

Sharif says Tunisians demand of political and intellectual books was also high during the 1970s and 1980s. Former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his corrupt regime managed to change that, but the demand has risen again since the revolution. “It is a good and healthy condition that reflects Tunisian citizens’ awareness which exceeds that of the political and cultural elites.”