An open mind is a sign of maturity and self-confidence. An open heart is the hallmark of Ramadan. I plead the case of books and hope that the annual pardon includes them too.

Those are the closing words of a heartfelt statement by Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed posted this week at the online magazine www.ArabNews.com based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Doctor's brave words, written to shame Saudi authorities, are a powerful reminder that our current freedoms are hard-won.

He continues:

Ramadan is a time of forgiveness and reprieve. Many prisoners are freed and many more forgive their private grievances. Is it too much to hope that books receive such treatment? While the world sheds its chains we have censorship offices in town and on our borders and airports that live in pre-industrial times.

They are petty dictators who rule according to their own whims. The citizen does not know what is allowed and what isnít. And neither do they; but they will pass judgment and make life miserable for anyone who brings in a book picked up at the airport somewhere....

There is another sad reason why censorship should be removed altogether: it is the tragic fact that not many in this country read. Trust this painful phenomenon to take care of your censorship.

In the United States, organizations such as the American Library Association and the American Booksellers Association Foundation for Free Expression fight censorship, support the freedom to read, and celebrate Banned Books Week each year.

For librarians and booksellers and in fact for anyone who cares about free speech, Banned Books Week helps focus the mind, organize resistance to laws such as provisions of the Patriot Act, and educate those not comfortable with particular words or sexual issues.

Dr. Al-Rasheed continues:

There are offices in the ministry in charge of non-Arabic books where not a single person understands the English idiom... (they) ban a history book that has the portrait of Marie Antoinette with a particularly low cut dress. Worse, they allow in a book in English yet ban the Arabic translation.

Are we such an infantile nation that needs constant protecting? If so, the protection is utterly redundant and completely useless. Satellite television and the Net have rendered all sorts of censorship null and void...

...I know someone who, in days gone by, used to bring in books that were anti-Saudi or simply 'banned' in the country. He used to put them in his den and show them to his visitors. He never read a single one of them.

We ask the minister to put the bookís case to His Majesty and explain the plight of the written word in this country. Our desire is to liberate ourselves and our books from this tyranny. We cannot claim that we are starved of information as we used to be, but it would be honorable to put an end to this useless yet harmful practice. It does not do us any good and it certainly does not do our countryís image any favors.

Those petty tyrants at airports who will allow certain things in if carried by a certain type of people yet hold the rest of humanity hostage to their position should be fired. Worse, they should be made to read books, especially the ones they confiscate.

It is interesting to reflect on these fragile freedoms during Pledge Drive on KZYX&Z. We don't take free speech for granted. On this station you may speak freely, write freely, and freely send in your generous pledge to help support our station and the free speech we broadcast every single day of the year.

Aired Sunday October 23, 2005 at 10:55 am and Monday October 24, 2005 at 8:40 am

NOTES:

About ArabNews Online:

With technology opening the new doors of communication and the distribution of news and information, ArabNews Online is not bound by physical limitations. ArabNews Online is published by ArabNews from its offices located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and is now available to readers around the globe. It offers Arab and non-Arab readers news from an Arab perspective. What viewers can expect is in-depth regional information for those outside of Saudi Arabia, and a forum within which to interact with the sources of information. We hope to provide a glimpse into the daily life and activities within the Kingdom, from human interest stories to political events.

ArabNews is also proud of its Islam section and special Islamic features. The objective is enlightenment of Muslims and non-Muslims of a great faith by providing an arena in which to pose questions and receive answers.

The news market has been changing dramatically in recent years. Around the world people have less free time and, as a result, are more discerning about how they spend it. ArabNews Online endeavors to reflect this changing lifestyle, by offering accuracy, selectivity, immediacy, and interactivity. The Internet allows for a more personal relationship between reporter and reader. And at ArabNews we value that relationship.

Please contact the Editor in Chief Mr. Khaled Al-Maeena in reference to our website via email at: almaeena@arabnews.com

Banned Books Week:

Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express oneís opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

Between 1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom:

1,607 were challenges to ìsexually explicitî material (up 161 since 1999);

1,427 to material considered to use ìoffensive languageî; (up 165 since 1999)

1,256 to material considered ìunsuited to age groupî; (up 89 since 1999)

842 to material with an ìoccult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism,î; (up 69 since 1999)

737 to material considered to be ìviolentî; (up 107 since 1999)

515 to material with a homosexual theme or ìpromoting homosexuality,î (up 18 since 1999)

419 to material ìpromoting a religious viewpoint.î (up 22 since 1999)

"Intellectual Freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas." -- Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." -- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, The One Un-American Act. Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

"Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment." -- Article 3, Library Bill of Rights