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.
I still cant get over the point that Prof. Najam and ATP had to Copy+Paste an article from SOME OTHER BLOG to make fun of Islamic literature. I am sure he has no dearth of secular arguments against the right wing religious and political movements, so why a borrowed scornful article which was not written for ATP?
Why are people all getting worked up about Urdu. Some of the material mentioned was in English. Language does not matter, but the dishonesty being spread does. That is the point that is disturbing. Also, disturbing is how many people comment on a post without ever reading it!
Clearly, others have pointed out the biased article and the errors. The author seems to have a phobia of Islamic literature or perhaps Islam in general.
Urdu books? Must be for the lower classes. “We” only read the agrayzi ones.
I don’t find anything funny in the pamphlets. This is a totally bigoted view of the KIBF. I thought ATP presented a more pleasing view about Pakistan and not unfair criticisms. By the way i’m smiling because it’s Sunnah
Nice read. Rather pathetic comments for mot part. Miss the point entirely. No problem with religious books, but huge problems with spreading lies and making up stories like the one on Jinnah and Qasim quoted here.