Doha, 14 May 2024

An open letter to the Prime Minister of Qatar, H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who inaugurated the Doha Book Fair, that is open from 9 to 18 May, with the slogan: “Knowledge is Light!” in the “Pavilion of Cultural Diversity.”

Dr Shimon Samuels, Emeritus Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, pointed to the Qatari Prime Minister an example of darkness and hate on the stand H4-102, of Dar al Tanoua al Thaqafi... Syrian publisher of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, translated into Arabic by Mohamed Amin Sabbah.

Photo of the book on the publisher’s shelves at the Doha Book Fair, and a close-up (photo csweurope).

US Ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis, had once pointed out the presence of six US universities with campuses in Doha. Samuels noted the danger of antisemitic texts – such as “Mein Kampf” – brought in from the Fair to infect these US campuses.

Samuels reminded that, “This is now the 23rd year of our monitoring book fairs in Arab countries, in order to identify hateful texts and report the publishers to the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM) – the largest worldwide – that has such books removed on the grounds of breaking contractual obligations between publishers and the Fair.”

“We also annually designate a ‘Prize for Hate’ to the worst offenders – in terms of quantity and type of hateful texts per country – at the end of the FBM. In recent years, the ‘winner’ has often been Iran, though Syria is also frequently mentioned,” concluded Samuels.

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Free all the hostages!

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