People queued outside a local bookshop in Budaiya (the area I live in which is about 20kms north-east of Manama) at [b]2AM[/b] to get their mitts on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! The shop has never opened at that time of the day, yet more than 50 people with kids in fancy dress and a few with Harry Potter periphernalia were waiting outside the shop at that time in the morning – a time where you would be hard pushed to find a cat taking a leasurly stroll in that area of Bahrain!
100 books were sold within the first few hours and not one copy was left by 6am!
At 6am the largest bookshop on the island opened its doors in one of the major malls in Bahrain that traditionally opens at 10am, again within a few hours their stocks were depleted.
Frances and Amna went to the bookshop’s branch in another mall in the afternoon where they were fortunate to grab one of the last copies left in the store. A few minutes later they returned to check for another book and they only found one copy left. I think it was bought soon thereafter.
The shop in Budaiya had another consignment of the book arriving yesterday morning at the airport, that consignment was for 250 books, I can’t see that they will last long.
Frances tells me that a dad bought the book, packaged it and delivered it to the school for his daughter! He left it at reception for her collection!
Amna has already started reading the book in the car after she bought it and hasn’t put it down yet. They have an activity at school (that she’s not interested in) so she took the book with her! I think she’ll probably finish it in the next couple of days, then the fight would start on who is to read it next: Hanan, Arif, Frances or ME!
All the best to J. K. Rawling, I applaud her creativity and passion for her characters. It is really gratifying to see someone like her who started from nothing to be what she is today, an international celebrity. Good on ya!
Comments
Harry Pothead
Has the Moslems had anything to say about the Harry Potter books, the way the Catholic Church has in the past spoken out against it, as it deals with witchcraft, which of course is a pagan religion and considered evil by them? Morally corrupting our youth?
[i]Martin :)[/i]
Re: Harry Pothead
OF COURSE THEY DO!
I was going with the kids to see the first Harry Potter at the cinema some time ago and a visiting Saudi family were asking the guy at the kiosk what he suggests and if it is “appropriate” to watch Harry Potter. The (dickhead) replied with a straight face that he strongly advises her not to as it is against Islam and contains witchcraft and wizardry etc. This is from a bloody ticket clerk who is supposed to be a salesman for the cinema!!
I gave him a bit of my mind of course at that time, but all 4 or 5 clerks at the counter held the same views and they shut up thinking that I will go to their manager etc.
The customer obviously chose another movie!
Other than Harry Potter, a couple of weeks ago I read that the “mutawa’s” in Saudi arrested a “warlock” in Mekkah or Medina and sentinced him to a good prison term and deportation after serving the sentance because they “found him practicing witchcarft and wizardry and other things against the religion.”!
I’ll dig up that reference from their site sometime tomorrow and post it here – it will be in Arabic unfortunately but it does have some other “interesting” things in there as well, like banning Barbie dolls from Saudi as it is a “corrupting influence” on the minds of people. That site is a treasure trove of knowledge!
Now I’m off for a drink with friends!
Harry and Barbie corrupting our youth
Well, you know, they just [i][b]might[/b][/i] be right about Barbie being Evil! (or Corrupting Influence, same thing)! Just look at that sly grin, she’s up to something! Moreover, girls grow up thinking everyone else is “smooth” down there and flat-chested 🙂
I think it was here in Australia someone pulled a prank and went into a toy story and switched the tapes on talking Barbie Dolls and GI Joe dolls, so GI Joe, a macho soldier, would say things like “Let’s Bake cookies!” and Barbie would say in a commanding deep voice “Let’s go, men!” or words to that effect. The toy store wasn’t impressed when they found out by the customers complaints.
Now [b]there’s[/b] something Osama could do! Raid a largeAmerican toy store chain, like Toys-R-Us, and switch tapes on Barbie dolls and have them say “Allahu Akhbah!” and “Kill the Infidels!”
[b]That’s[/b] terrorism! Never mind those two piddling towers. This is hitting America where it hurts, the symbol of American womanhood and capitalist ideals!!
I don’t know if you know of the popular American children’s show, Sesame Street. It’s a great show that’s run for a number of years, the puppets made by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Anyway, you may know of the character Bert. This site has evidence that Bert is, in fact, Evil!
[url=http://www.spacecat.com/bert/bert.htm]Bert Is Evil[/url]
I got onto this site when a pro-Osama Bin Laden demonstration in Pakistan a while ago featured posters of Osama and various people with him in the background. One of the pictures was of Osama with Ernie! It was a doctored photo, of course, that the designer had gotten off the web without realising it was fake. He just saw a picture of Osama. It made the news here.
I just checked the address, and maybe you can’t get to it, as I notice it’s got a banner at the bottom for “un-Islamic activity” (you know, what the birds and bees do, and your son just learnt about, and Barbie definitely doesn’t do)
Martin 😀
Re: Harry and Barbie corrupting our youth
hahahahahah! that’s one way of looking at things and I share your (and others’ view) that Sessame Street and its characters are most indubitably evil!
Barbies and Kens follow the same route, but if you take these things up as a “cause” then you’re asking for them to become the best and most sought after items in [b]any[/b] society. We have a saying here: [b]what’s banned becomes wanted and popular[/b]
From personal experience, my daughters have received tens of Barbie dolls, they never took to them. Good that we saved them as Gnasher is having fun ripping them apart!
[Modified by: Mahmood Al-Yousif (mahmood) on June 23, 2003 11:50 AM]
Re(1): Harry and Barbie corrupting our youth
didn’t realise I wasn’t logged in!