Now you are worried abt Hamas? Over some censorship? But previously, their violent ideology, lack of value of human life, and sponsorship for terrorsim didnt alarm you? Ooops! Enjoy what you reaped!

The books can be very harmful in the iranian province of Hamasistan.

If only our government were half as dedicated to the God of Israel as the Arabs are to Allah,the Arab /Jewish conflict would have ended long ago

NAZIS? Ahhh..how the Left loves fascism!

"First they burn people, then they burn books."

It is truely sickening that our Arab cousins could be so outraged by this act of facist censorship and at the same time allow the Protocols of Zion to be printed and remain the best seller that it is in the Palistinian Gaza . Naziism is still alive in your community

...the latter two in somewhat more recent memory.

I seem to recall another group that liked destroying books - in Germany during the 1930's. First, burn all the books with any sexual content. Then burn books written by Jews. And you can't allow books written by infidel Christians either. Oh, and books in foreign languages - they have to go. Don't forget any books about freedom, women's rights, gay rights, democracy - a bad influence. I almost forgot foreign newspapers. And science books, they might contradict religious writings - burn those too. Did I forget about music? Un-Islamic, for sure. Is anything left? I guess books on bomb-making are OK. Nothing un-Islamic about bombs.

This book is still freely available in bookstores and libraries just not in schools. Theres nothing wrong with taking them from schools because the palestinian government is worried about the influence certain references in the book might have on CHILDREN. Also, this is not a big issue in palestine - palestinians have got better things to worry about like getting some food to feed their families and fighting the occupation

"...the palestinian government is worried about the influence certain references in the book might have on CHILDREN." Herein lies the true reason they burn books of quaint stories and folk tales - too much potential distraction from the REAL CURRICULUM of learning how to be Jew-killers and human bombs. As ever, the PA is only thinking of the children...

Its all about control. The first go is always the books.

Bit of an irony here. This topic about the book is not represented as it should be.

"Education and culture and social issues should not be handled by anybody that has a closed, ideological, doctrinal attitude," But other issues, such as your everyday garden variety government issues; health, economy, inferstructure, etc., are okee-dokee . . . . um . . . oh . . just forget it.

You say that they were pulled from schools only. Books get pulled from school libraries sometimes in Canada. The reason is usually that parents justifiably object to the ultra-liberal agenda of teachers and the locally elected School Boards However, in Canada it's not the government who decides which books the children should have access to, but parents and their elected School Boards. The situation in the PA is light years away because of the dictatorial nature of the government that oppresses all sectors of society, as indicated on this article.

http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft4s2005r4/ this book is obviously not for children - it mentions things like pregnancy and children having parents - Yikes .. light the bonfire ...

. . . the 'skip through the park' known as FINALLY ESTABLISHING PEACE, MODERATION, AND A STATE FOR THE ARABS WHO WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY (c'mon folks, please let there be some) WITH YOU KNOW WHO!!?

freakin morons!

This book was written as a reaction to an Israeli who said if they were a real people they would have their own folklore. There's nothing 'scientific, academic" about this book.

You can't let it run rampant in one part of society and not have it run rampant elsewhere. Ms. Ashrawi: OF COURSE this is what's to come. Hamas is the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. "Education and culture and social issues should not be handled by anybody that has a closed, ideological, doctrinal attitude," she said. "It should be in the hands of professionals." Should foreign, military, police and judicial policy be handled by idealogical, closed, doctrinists, then? Sadly, Palestinians think they can "safely" use Hamas as a weapon against Israel. The truth is that the Islamist/terrorist weapon has always hurt them 1000 times as much as it has hurt Israel, and it is not done hurting them. It will not be done hurting them until they finally consign it to the dustbin of history and look for solutions with minds that are not closed by fanatical ideology, rigid doctrine and poisonous propaganda.

Doesn't it offend your sensibilities to see Taliban ways taking root in the PA? I must confess I was disappointed by your posting. I expected more from you.

Next time, the palestinian people will think twice about voting for radical extremists who run on such a negative platform. They wanted Hamas to be "pragmatic" and give them structure. Instead, they get infringements on their right to read their own cultural literature. Shame on Hamas for deceiving their fellow palestinian Arabs and stomping on their rights. Who is your real enemy now?

yes of course it offends me Mike. As an educator myself, it's hard for me to fathom why the solution would be to burn the books. I can understand if the book contains material inappropriate for a certain level that it be not taught at lower intermediate levels but perhaps introduced to secondary and high school mentalities, but I dont understand what good burning it would do. Theres a saying in Arabic, "kil shee mamnou3 marghoub," meaning that all that which is forbidden is desired. The best defence is always proper education. I always thank God that in Lebanon we have great freedom in our curricula, far more than we did in the past. I always enjoyed teaching Catcher in the Rye and Season of Migration to the North to my high school students, and the in-depth, intellectual discussions we had in class were something I will always recall with pride and joy. My point was, since the book can be read online, it's a little ironic theres a call for burning it. Also, I needed to know more about how and why the decision was made, ie, the root of this problem, if it is one.

a book in the good ole' USA because of a single word? I believe that that effort was based on exactly the same concept: a refence to a personal body part using an explicit term. In the USA only one word was offensive. Hypocricy continues to rein.... OH, and by the way, I believe there should be very few limits to free speech. AND I can't wait for the newest Potter Book.

The Minister of Education, Nasser al Sha'er said that the book was banned due to the filthy expressions used and due to the fact that it is not written in an appropriate language that should be used in schools.. I'm against burning the book (which I doubt) but I think the PA has the right to ban the book from schools.. besides, I wonder if those defending this book would have spoken up against the Western calls onto Arab/Muslim governments to ban certain Quranic verses from Arab and Muslim curricula.. and to adopt a new version of the Quran (the Furqan) !!!