Book lovers thronged over the weekend to the 10-day Riyadh International Book Fair, belying the notion that the reading habit is on the wane among Saudis and despite a fracas Wednesday, the first full day of the fair, created by a suspected self-appointed censor. Hundreds of Saudis – men women and children, school and college students – filled the Riyadh Exhibition Center Thursday and Friday, hurrying to search, find, buy and move on from one stall to another. There was excitement in the air, panic even as many feared the choicest books would be sold out or carted away by fair controllers. And there was also satisfaction in the faces of those seen leaving with bags full of books. The array of books at the annual fair this year is unparalleled: 200,000 titles from 550 publishing houses representing 22 countries in all. There are books for every age group and in different languages, including English, German, French, Turkish and Persian. About 90 percent of the books are in Arabic. “Very few visitors to the fair will look for English titles,” said Dr. Salah Al-Ghamdi, member of the Fair's Organizing Committee. “The publishers want business, which is only the reason you see very few books in English.” That's why there were far more Saudis visiting the fair over the weekend than expatriates. “I'm happy to see such a huge crowd of people so early Thursday morning, the weekend, when most people in Saudi Arabia tend to relax,” remarked Abdullatif Al-Huzaimi, a retired supervisor of Mathematics Department of the Education ministry, who was a visitor. “This shows the people's interest in reading.” The tremendous public response had Al-Huzaimi saying that book fairs should be made more frequent not only in Riyadh but in other parts of the Kingdom as well. But many publishers and visitors were not as optimistic for fear of people posing as censors who had triggered panic after they got into a fierce quarrel with a visitor that nearly got physical. Abdul Basit, one of the exhibitors told Arabic daily Al-Hayat what had happened. He said one of the visitors had picked up one of the novels of Abdo Khal, whose books are normally not sold in Saudi Arabia, and was browsing through it when a man snatched it away, saying the book was prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Saudi writer Abdo Khal, who has written five novels, is on record as arguing that his books are not sold in Saudi Arabia because they “address the sacrosanct trio of taboos in the Arab world: sex, politics, and religion. But these are the things that make up people's lives.” The visitor, angered at the rude manner in which the book was taken away, retorted sarcastically, “In this Internet age, here you are parroting what's prohibited and what's not.” A loud quarrel ensued and other visitors intervened to support the reader, making matters worse. The crowd ganged up to lambast the censor for trying to prevent them from reading Abdo Khal's books, telling him to wake up since they would get hold of his books one way or the other. Fortunately, before things got out of hand, more people intervened and dispersed the crowd. But such censorship was not isolated. In fact, the organizers themselves say they would maintain some control over the titles on display throughout the duration of the fair. (See Box). One censor was seen pushing away a heap of books on a cart on top of which was ” Death Passes From Here” by Abdo Khal and “Tent” by the late Moroccan writer Muhammad Shukri who shot to fame with his controversial autobiography, “The Plain Bread,” published three decades ago. The book was translated into 19 languages although it was banned in Morocco until 2001. Nabeel Marwa, owner of Al-Intishar Al-Arabi Establishment was cited by Al-Hayat as saying that organizers of the fair – should have learned from last year's experience when similar problems had cropped up. Marwa said the organizers ought to emulate the organizers of the Cairo and Abu Dhabi book fairs, where censorship is done outside the fair so that visitors are not inconvenienced by censorship or surveillance. “What is happening here is intolerable for both censors and publishers,” Marwah said, speaking for other publishers who had told him about their “resentment and dissatisfaction.” Visitors who saw the fracas were clearly irate. One of them remarked to Al-Hayat that it appeared as as if the censors of the Ministry of Culture and Information had not heard of “the open skies” and the Internet. Publishers said the censors were confiscating books that have already been cleared for display, revealing in the process confusion in the pattern of thinking of the organizers. For example, books by Syrian poet Ahmed Said, a leader of the modernist movement in Arabic poetry and who writes under the pseudonym Adonis, were exhibited at last year's fair but this year the censors were taking them away from the stalls. The market for books in Saudi Arabia has been predominately an educational one, with the main sectors being libraries, academic and professional. Now, with easy online access to a wide variety of works of literature, politics and fiction, Saudis have developed an appetite for new reading material, which the annual fair has been able to offer to a great degree. In the view of Adel Shukri, secretary general of Saudi Publishers' Association, Saudis are high-value book buyers. Saudis spend lavishly on books if given the chance, Adel Al-Hushan, a writer, poet and publisher said. “This fair is unique because the books found here are usually not available in the local bookstores,” he said – “especially books on literature, politics and women issues, such as their rights, which are in abundance here. He said that some people, in the name of religion were intimidating publishers and preventing them from selling some books. He said that though the ministry has allowed such books into the fair “these unauthorized individuals” were preventing the public from getting hold of them. “I think they (the unauthorized individuals) should be monitored and stopped from indulging in such practices.” Asked if they belonged to the Commission for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, he said: “No, such individuals operate on their own.” The Commission is working closely with the Information ministry to ensure the smooth running of the fair, he said. Dr. Salah Al-Ghamdi, member of the Fair's Organizing Committee, said the Ministry would do its utmost to make sure that unauthorized individuals “do not come and dictate their versions of law and order at the fair.” He said a unified policy has been drawn up in cooperation with all the government agencies involved, including the Commission, to ascertain that the fair was a success. “I can assure everyone that this fair will be just as successful as the one last year,” he said. He urged visitors to inform the authorities if they find any objectionable material displayed at the fair. “Five or six titles were registered by the Organizing Committee after we got complaints from visitors,” he said without elaborating. Yusuf Abdulrahman Al-Yusuf, the fair's director of Surveillance, said they received a complaint from some publishing houses that some people had harassed them by assuming the role of censor. He said that the ministry's “publication controllers” have badges and those without badges do not represent it.” - With Al-Hayat __
