Iranian stall at book fair closed after ASWJ protest

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter Published December 8, 2013

KARACHI, Dec 7: A stall set up by the Iranian consulate at the Karachi International Book Fair in the Expo Centre has been closed after a religious organisation held a protest against the display of what it alleged controversial books.

The Iranian consulate rejected the allegation.

Activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat staged the demonstration outside the Expo Centre in protest against the display of “sectarian” books at the stall.

The protest continued for a considerable time and ended only after police removed those books from the stall, police and ASWJ officials said.

An ASWJ spokesman accused the Iranian consulate of selling controversial books at the fair and said they had submitted an application to the Aziz Bhatti police station for action into the matter.

Rejecting the ASWJ’s allegation, the consulate said in a statement that Iran had always raised voice for the unity of Muslims and “wrong statements of those organisations which are themselves illegal and involved in fuelling sectarianism and sectarian strife among Muslims can never be the standard of measurement of a reality”.

It said that noble people of Pakistan had rich Islamic culture and negative statements of “followers of a deviant ideology” could not affect friendship between Iran and Pakistan.

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Syed

Dec 08, 2013 12:32pm

Disgusting !

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Emran

Dec 08, 2013 01:17pm

Investigate the matter and if nothing is found controversial then ...hmmmmmmm........what can you do about these people?

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Zain

Dec 08, 2013 01:28pm

" organisations which are themselves illegal" At least someone remembers that ASWJ is a banned organization. I am often surprised at how they operate so openly without any problem.

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Naved

Dec 08, 2013 01:39pm

I visited the book fair two days (Thursday and Friday ) and spent some time on Iranian culture center book stall also. I did not see any controversial books there. The books from top shia Ulema on topics like shia belief, Islamic jurisprudence and other such topics were on display. People from all sects were visiting the book stall and buying books from there. There was nothing wrong at all. Everybody knows that ASWJ is a sectarian organization and their one point agenda is to harm shias and malign Iran with their baseless allegations. Govt. should take immediate notice of their anti shia activities.

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Safdar

Dec 08, 2013 03:07pm

This is terrible..!! Action was taken against the stall of government of another country at the protest of a banned organization. This shows this country is going down and that we have no place in this civilized world.

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Sohraab

Dec 08, 2013 03:34pm

This Country will never learn from its mistakes....again the Government is acting cowardly on the threats of a banned organization ASWJ. Tomorrow they will ban the English literature Books by labeling them as promoting American / Zionist agenda. I honestly don't see any future of Pakistan.

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Armagan Akram

Dec 08, 2013 03:49pm

As a sunni hanafi myself, it is the activists of ASWJ that should be arrested, what right do they have to decide what is controversial and what is not? no one appointed or voted to give them any authority. This banned organisation and its leadership should be arrested and interned. All they do is cause trouble and provide succour to terrorists. They have no place in a modern developed Pakistan, they should permanently left in jail as they are of no use to the rest of Pakistan or humanity.

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Monazza

Dec 09, 2013 04:32pm

I went there yesterday .. was really disappointed to see the stall closed as that was one my favourite stalls.. last year i bought very fine prints of Irani paintings from there .. and i have never seen any books on this stall that could spread sectarianism .. they used to have very good collection of Irani poetry ,philosophy, Persian-Urdu dictionaries, books on peace and unity, nature etc.. .. i couldn't understand this act of the management at all.. i also witnessed some readers who were looking for the Irani stall n asking on different stalls that where they can find any Persian books.. this truly was a disappointment. and yes.. the stall is not completely removed ,they have covered it with sheets , one can go and search if there are any books that could possibly spread hatred or sectarianism .

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ALI AHAD

Dec 10, 2013 06:46pm

Looking at these comment, not only i felt proud at my fellow Pakistani Muslims, but overwhelmed to see the that we are united .. and understand very well that its the political parties doing their dirty politics by igniting sectarian issue .. thank you fellow countrymen

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Faraz

Dec 10, 2013 07:28pm

I also visited the stall and found that few books are controversial on that stall. If Iranian consulate want to participate in the fair they should placed the book on Iranian culture rather than propagating their View. I personally believe this event should not be used for sectarianism.

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hasan

Dec 10, 2013 09:40pm

How can lranian embassy comment and command on ASWJ status. Its not there duty .they cant interfere in pak matters

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Kaspar

Dec 11, 2013 04:46pm

@hasan: In today's world, any embassy treated unfairly would respond. If you hold an international book fair, you must be ready to listen to all kinds of views. In this case, the accuser is an organisation of doubtful credentials.

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