Daroon-e-Khanna
The 6th Karachi International Book Fair was held in Karachi this week. More than 300 publishers/ booksellers, more than a quarter million visitors over five days. You might have read about the importance of such events, you might have heard about the achievements of the fair and you might have been told about the diversity on offer.
But since more than 70 percent of the stalls were trying to make money by making the readers better Muslims, we concentrated on the free goodies on offer. Here is our alternative tour of the 6th Karachi International Book Fair.
Things We Got For Free
A DVD of the first-ever documentary about Maulana Maududi’s life, produced by Al Khidmat, Jamaat Islami’s charity wing.
A CD of the Jamaat’s current Ameer Maulana Munawar Hassan’s speeches. We accepted it under extreme duress.
Four pamphlets:
- Sins of the Tongue (the Urdu version is called Zaban ka Gunah)
Not what you think. It’s all about Islamic punishments for gossiping and backbiting. - Music: Quran aur Sunnat Mein [Music According to the Quran and Sunnat]
More haraam than you ever thought. It leads to road accidents and zina. - Quaid-e-Azam Speaks
… And it seems he couldn’t utter a sentence without quoting from the Quran or invoking Islam. - How Good is Your Child’s School?
They perform Shakespeare’s plays? They celebrate Halloween? They have sleepovers at their friends’ house? You need to find a more Islamic school.
We were also given a newsletter by the Pakistan Librarians’ Association. Their favourite word seems to be ‘decline.’
One Thing We Thought Was For Free But Wasn’t
A DVD on goras converting to Islam.
We assumed it was for free because we were promised that everything on this particular stall was for free. But then we were told that this DVD was an exception. 80 rupees.
Things We Admired But Found To Be Way Out Of Our Budget
Kaaba Fun Game
Masjid Fun Game
Salat Fun Game
Things We Could Have Got For Free But Didn’t
Complete Quran audio download to our mobile phone. Takes only five minutes to download, we were assured.
Books We Wanted To Buy But Then Looked At The Last Chapter
Two new biographies of Mohammad Bin Qasim, both with happy endings. Dude marries Raja Dahar’s daughter and lives happily ever after. And we thought he was called back, tortured and executed by being sewn alive into a hide and drowned by the then khalifa.
Books We Didn’t Even Know Existed
Collected works of Dale Carnegie (of How to Make Friends and Influence People fame) in Urdu. This was definitely the heftiest volume we have ever seen in the Urdu language.
A new translation of The Brothers Karamazov by a gentleman called Shahid Siddiqi.
One Thing We Did Buy
A funky looking mug which reads ‘Smile, it’s Sunnah.’
Editors Note: Daroon-e-Khanna blogs at Cafe Pyala, where this post first appeared.
Burn Baby Burn!
I am imagining the situation faced by the author. I wish I was there to experience the pain and torture author felt after finding entire KIBF ‘Islamic” or “Talibanized”. I really missed the chance!
Let me rub salts into wounds of the liberals. The author did not talk about the audience. Specially female lot that majority of them were wearing either Hijab or Abaya or Niqab. They were not from some low class family who can’t afford so called modern education but seems to belong “elite” lot who often communicate in English.
Fun post.
Although I should say I was also at the book fair. I thought it wad great. And yes there were all sorts of books there. Which was great. There were lots of religious books but probably not 70 percent. Overall it’s good that there were all types of books there.
“eing an attendant of KIBF myself, I can safely say that majority of stalls were dedicated to Islamic/religious books.”
should be read as:
“eing an attendant of KIBF myself, I can safely say that majority of stalls were NOT dedicated to Islamic/religious books.”
The author seems to hold extremist point of view and he/she does not like to tolerate opponents. Where’s now your “Secular” tolerance?
While author is lying publicly. Being an attendant of KIBF myself, I can safely say that majority of stalls were dedicated to Islamic/religious books. There were not more than 5 who were dedicated for Islamic books. Rest there were misc stalls who were selling all kind of stuff. From Salina Karim’s “Secular Pakistan” to Razia Butt’s novels, all were available. If author suffered from phobia then that’s different thing otherwise he/she is just lying.
And as Ibrahim said, even if it was true then what’s wrong in it? our TV channel shows lots of vulgar programs, you never wrote about that abundance but you came up with a fake alias and made a post. Atleast bring some courage 1st before you target others.
As the mug says,
Smile, guys, its sunnah!