Riyadh Book Fair bans 'Muslim Brotherhood' books for threatening 'intellectual security'

Saudi authorities will ban Muslim Brotherhood books in the upcoming Riyadh International Book Fair, scheduled for Tuesday March 4, under the auspices of King Abdullah Bin Abdel-Aziz.

900 publishing houses from 32 countries will participate in the fair.

The Saudi Al-Iktisadiyah newspaper quoted the President of the Saudi Publishers Association Ahmad Al-Himdan as saying that Muslim Brotherhood books will not be sold at the fair, adding: “We will not allow anyone to exploit the book fair to leak any banned books that would constitute a threat to intellectual security.”

“We will not allow the circulation of books written by ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups. So the reader should be reassured that the book fair does not include any book that threatens security or incites to violence and misleading ideas.”

Deputy Information Minister Abdel-Aziz Al-Okail said: “whatever violates the religious and political principles of the Kingdom is considered banned, whether it belongs to a country or a party.”

Nevertheless, Al-Okeil claimed that the Riyadh book fair enjoys “a greater margin of freedom” compared to other Arab book fairs.

Saudi authorities announced on Saturday the barring of 350 publisher from participating in the book fair “for failure to abide by the fair’s criteria and conditions.”