All of you are speaking out of complete and utter ignorance. None of you have ever - EVER - read an Arabic book, so please don't comment. Its true that Arabs are reluctant to translate books, but they have a rich literature of their own! So pick up a book by any Arab writer, and you'll be surpirsed at what you can find. Otherwise, keep your mouths shut because you're merely showing the rest of the people who read this site how stupid and ignorant you really are!

strange that countries like Morocco and Tunisia also boycot this event.

glad that they chose an israeli but WHY peres - he is the most corrupt person in this country and dishonest. he should stay home.

The issue is not the richness of Arab literature. The issue as you admit it is the reluctance to translate Non-Arabic literature into arabic ! because that reflects intolerance and ignorance of other cultures! and by the way there are more than a few Arab literature works that have been translated to English and other languages nothing wrong with it.

I'm responding to those idiots that think the Arabs don't read books. I admit there is a certain xenophobia amongst Arabs nations, but that has more to do with the government stranglehold on censorship, rather than a reluctance by the people themsleves.

You think about this, Johannes - they want to pickup where you left off! Now, either you find that unacceptable, or you are no different than your father. As to us calling them animals, well, Johannes, they learned from you, so what does that make them?

Well, Said, no matter what we say, we cannot possible reveal ourselves to be anywhere near as stupid as your brethen who are boycotting this bookfairs because JOOOOOOOOOOOOOS are there!

you may be right. it may be that most or some arabs will be willing and interested in reading non islamic literature, western and european literature and even jewish israeli literature.....however, maybe as you claim, it must be the arab muslim governments that put a choke and gripping hand on incoming western and modern literature into their arab countries and not allow the translation of western literature into arabic and neither the selling of such translated books to their public and country. most people here are 100% right in their claim that most arabs do not read and are neither interested in western literature. for centuries, arab rulers, be they sheiks or dictators (all arab muslim countries are basically dictatorships with zero tollerance for free speach and media.....literature is part of media) have blindfolded the arab subjects under their rule and disallowed any foreign influence to reach the masses. influence such as non arab books, non arab media, non arab cultures, non arab ways of life in foreign lands.....all these have never been allowed to reach the arab public so that it can learn what is going on outside of their countries and how others live, what others believe in, how others conduct life and living, how and what others read, etc.... everything was taboo coming from the "impure outside world". in doing so, these despotic regimes have kept the masses not only ignorant but also illiterate. in doing so, they relegated entire societies to poverty, repression, fear, opression and uselessness. this is basically what is wrong with the arabic world today and why other cultures that believe in freedom and freedom of thought and debate have passed the arabs by for centuries. the only books i have seen translated in arabic when i visited syria, jordan, lebanon, etc... (i am not jewish) weremein kamf and the protocols of the elders of zion which were vrampant on the arab street and were the BEST SELLERS at that time. when your arab countries start selling quality literature instead of vile propaganda lies, then maybe the public would be enlightened enough to demand their literrary rights in a modern world rather than a 7th century mentality. the only reason that the despotic and opressive arab rulers permit this vile literature in abundance, and the only reason same rulers do not permit translated non arabic literary work from coming into the country and being read by the masses is because the governments and regimes are SCARED ; scared that the masses will demand their democratic rights, scared that the masses will see how others live with freedom, prosperity and decency, scared that the masses will start questioning the validity and fairness of these totalitarian rulers, scared that the masses will demand the change and life gleamed from this forbidden literature. this is why european or modern world literature is almost non- existent in your arab world. when you rule over a people and subject them to illiteracy, fear, poverty and repression, when you take away from them the chance to view how others live aqround the world via literature, you subject these people to poverty of thought, non advancements, repressive thinking, non modernization. yuou basically keep them in the backwater of civilization, poor, unitelligent, illiterate and non thinking and debating. when you do not separate state from church and when islam is your government and religion together, you relegate your society to doomsday. arabs in modern times cannot be subjected to a backward and violent religion to control and rule their countries. this will destroy the people and their progress. if you didn't have so much oil, tell me one thing that you people could give to the world and its science, literature, thought, modernity, medicine, culture ,high tech. name one thing the arab have invented, produced, came up with, one thing except the gift of oil. NONE!

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3519059,00.html

During the Israel-Lebanon wore in 2006, the AP ran a story about two Sikhswho came to Lebanon for work. When they were being taken to the area where they were to be employed, the Arabs who led them pointed out that there were two paths: one for animals and one for people (for Muslims). The Sikhs were ordered to take the animal path. When they refused to take such humilation, the Arabs beat them and stole their clothes and money. The Lebanon government permitted the two men to work there, it was the people who were intolerant and made the two men happy to leave for India. Not to mention the fact that the Arab government in Khartoun has no problem finding Arabs to commit genocide on the black civilians in the south.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=FD53C706-25E0-49D2-94AB-A0E627BF322F

I know all that, I've seen all that and lived all that. I grew up in Jordan, the "moderate" Arab country. What you assume is that the people are stagnant. Rest assured though there is movement. All societies go through periods of relative freedom and relative oppression. When Europe was in the grip of fundamentalist Christianity, the Arab and Islamic world flourished with all sorts of freedoms, including freedom of expression. The Ottomans came and set the clock back 500 years. You place the blame squarely at the feat of the Arabs, but look at the paper trail to see which countries prop up these repressive regimes, with billions in aid, for the sake of cheap oil. The democratic voices in the Arab world have been betrayed time and time again by their supposed friends in the West. Why? Cheap oil. Its easier to bribe one man at the top than many men at different levels. Just like the Arab world, Europe and America want to blame others without looking at their own faults.

It is symptomatic of the closedmindness that you enounter in the Middle East. These same governments have done little or nothing, aside from arms, to assist the Palestinians. However, this fact never seems to come up.

Obviously, you did not find your own society that satisfying, if you moved to the United Kingdom. What did your homeland fail to provide you? Also, many books in Arabic have been translated into English. Finally, why do you have to tell people to "shut-up"? Are you that insecure?