A group of students at the University of Qatar have started a petition to remove “inappropriate” books from the university library.
In a message circulated online, the students state that:
These books which are available with a click of a button call for adultery and homosexuality; they also represent the sin for the youth to seduce them and ruin their morals…We hope that people with conscience would move to get rid of such administrations who brought corruption upon our educational institutions.” (PDF: Arabic)
While specific books were not mentioned, the petition included book covers featuring female nudity.
The university responded with a statement explaining that titles are automatically added to the library through subscriptions to foreign and international publishing houses. They are planning to form a committee to prevent this from happening again, and have put in place a “censoring policy” to be able to “delete the books which are against our culture according to clear standards before they reach the library’s index.”
