My home library is so crammed with old books and magazines that there is no more space. For a long time I stacked newly-bought books on top of rows of other books or on the top of shelves which makes them very difficult to retrieve.
Finally I decided to get rid of books which I felt were not worth keeping and so make more space for new and more important ones.
It was at this time that the officials at the Sahara Islamic Cultural Center came to my rescue. They promised to remove some of the books that I was wanted to get rid of.
Even after they removed some, still there were plenty remaining. I decided to destroy them myself and so built a fire in front of my house to burn them — though this was a painful thing for me to do.
A friend of mine who happened by when I chose to start my cleaning operation saw the pile of books waiting to be burned and wondered why some writers burden themselves and other people with such silly books and why those people are allowed to create trouble on earth.
The late scholar, Dr. Fayez Badr, was of the opinion that those who wrote worthless or misguiding books should be censured. He also asked that literary clubs in the country consider it their responsibility to initiate legal action against writers who produce books not worthy of reading.
He even prescribed a special punishment for such authors. They should publicly carry all the printed copies of their books on their backs and walk a kilometer. If a writer repeats the offense, the punishment should be doubled.
He was very harsh on the writers because he never distinguished between a rotten egg and a worthless book. Unfortunately he died before his recommendations were put into practice. Will any literary club come forward to experiment with his ideas?
Arab News Features 27 November 2002