You know what they say…..when you make a deal with the devil, the devil might just start banning your books.
The Hamas-run Education Ministry has ordered an anthology of Palestinian folk tales pulled from school libraries and destroyed, reportedly over mild sexual innuendo, officials said Monday, in the most direct attempt by the Islamic militants to impose their beliefs on Palestinian society.
Yet another attempt by Hamas to..err..penetrate the PA Ministry of Education.
The book ban angered and worried many Palestinians, who long feared that Hamas would use its victory in last year’s parliamentary election to remake the Palestinian territories according to its hard-line interpretation of Islam.
The 400-page anthology of folk tales narrated by Palestinian women was first published in English in 1989 by the University of California at Berkeley. It was put together by Sharif Kanaana, a novelist and anthropology professor at the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University, and by Ibrahim Muhawi, a teacher of Arabic literature and the theory of translation.
Kanaana said he believes “The Little Bird,” a tale in a chapter titled “Sexual awakening and courtship,” was one of the reasons the book was banned because it mentions private parts. In their notes, the authors explain that the bird in the story is a symbol of femininity adding that the use of sexual subjects in Palestinian folklore is a principal source of humor.West Bank novelist Zakariya Mohammed said he feared Hamas’ decision to ban “Speak Bird, Speak Again,” a collection of 45 folk tales, was only the beginning and urged intellectuals to take action. “If we don’t stand up to the Islamists now, they won’t stop confiscating books, songs and folklore,” he said.
Well, I’m sure they’ll stop when they reach the ones about the Jewish sons of monkeys and pigs.
The Education Ministry declined comment. A senior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the issue with reporters, confirmed that 1,500 copies of the book had been pulled from school libraries and destroyed.
Hanan Ashrawi, an independent lawmaker and former Cabinet minister, said the decision to pull the book was “outrageous.”
“If this is what is to come, it is extremely alarming,” she said.
Now she is extremely alarmed? Funny how Hamas’ terror attacks against innocent civilians did not concern her in the slightest.
With Hamas slated to retain the Education Ministry under a power-sharing agreement with the more secular Fatah Party, Ashrawi called for the creation of an independent body to deal with issues related to arts and education.
“Education and culture and social issues should not be handled by anybody that has a closed, ideological, doctrinal attitude,” she said.
Let those with a closed, ideological, doctrinal attitude stick to the martyr operations.
Sorry, but what did they expect when they elected these people in to power? To focus only on killing Jews?
Update: Stay tuned for the sequel: “Speak Goat, Speak Again”
Yesterday morning a neighbor of the Abu Aisha family saw a settler give a piece of bread covered with an unknown powder to their goats. The neighbor told this to the Abu Aisha family but the goat seem to be alright at that time. This morning however they found a goat lying in it’s stall unable to walk or eat. They gave her medicine by injection and in the afternoon the goat could walk again. Mr Abu Aisha reported this to police but he was told that there is not enough evidence for the police to take action.
Beware the Zionist goat coke.TM
