Hamas orders ban on folk-tale book

Would you believe - there's actually a collection of "palestinian" folk tales. That aside, the Hamas has now ordered this collection be banned, because:

The Hamas-run Palestinian Authority Education Ministry has ordered an anthology of Palestinian folk tales to be pulled from school libraries and destroyed because of sexually explicit language, officials said Monday, in what critics charged was the most direct attempt by the Islamic militants to impose their beliefs on Palestinian society.

The book ban angered and worried many Palestinians, who long feared that Hamas would use its victory in last year's parliamentary election to remake the Palestinian territories according to its hard-line interpretation of Islam.

The 400-page anthology of folk tales narrated by Palestinian women was first published in English in 1989 by the University of California at Berkeley. It was put together by Sharif Kanaana, a novelist and anthropology professor at the West Bank's Bir Zeit University, and by Ibrahim Muhawi, a teacher of Arabic literature and the theory of translation.

Kanaana said he believes "The Little Bird," a tale in a chapter titled "Sexual awakening and courtship," was one of the reasons the book was banned because it mentions private parts. In their notes, the authors explain that the bird in the story is a symbol of femininity adding that the use of sexual subjects in Palestinian folklore is a principal source of humor.

West Bank novelist Zakariya Mohammed said he feared Hamas' decision to ban "Speak Bird, Speak Again," a collection of 45 folk tales, was only the beginning and urged intellectuals to take action. "If we don't stand up to the Islamists now, they won't stop confiscating books, songs and folklore," he said.

He could be of a Christian background, and if that's what he said, I guess we'll have to congratulate him for having the guts to say what must be done: stand up to the Islamists.

However, let us be clear that "palestinian folklore" itself is just an absurd contrivance - since the whole name was a Roman concoction - and little else.