Friday July 27, 2007

I've Been Thinking:

J. K. Rowling's latest work is creating quite a stir in the Arab world.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has induced the Arabic press to engage in soul searching, introspective dialoguing and reality checking.

Al Jazeera and the Gulf News in Dubai have been covering the Harry Potter phenomenon as it impacts on their world.
Some interesting insights have emerged giving us a peek into the Arab world.

"We have to take into account that reading itself is what's lacking in Arab nations. Those nations do not even read the Koran. I say we must learn the love of reading from the West without saying that reading that [Harry Potter] book is a waste of time. Hundreds of thousands of [Westerners] stood in line to get a copy of the book and no one in the Arab nations even goes into a bookstore more than once a year. There's no crowding in bookstores. People crowd around the television, and they're highly skilled in wasting time on the Internet."

The Gulf News quotes 2 bookstore proporietors. One says that while he stocks about 10,000 volumes in his store, he sells maybe sells 2 to 5 books a month.

The Arab world today does not read.
The Arab world today is vastly, functionally, illiterate.
Religious leaders in the Arab world detest and demean the Western ... culture of music and sexual inuendo / but what about the Western culture of letters.
The great Arab literarians of the Golden Age are turning over in their graves.

Read my new book THUGS. It's easy. Just click.
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595550739