Jizan University has removed from its library collection books described by its chief librarian as containing “extremist thought” and which “promote terrorism”. Hussein Al-Daghriri, the university's Dean of Library Affairs told Al-Watan Arabic daily on Sunday that the titles removed from shelves include works by Sayyid Qutb and books related to the Muslim Brotherhood. “We hope to make the University of Jizan a national university with graduates matching global standards,” Al-Daghriri said. “The books which were removed during indexing had previously been included in college libraries by the Ministry of Education and were later included in the university library.” Books containing extremist thought, according to Al-Daghriri, were “few”, and became the responsibility of the university when faculty collections were assimilated into the university. Those libraries, he said, had no control or censorship. “But with Library Affairs now supervising the collection, the situation has changed,” Al-Daghriri said. “The contents of the library serve the curricula and are for staff and student use,” he said. “Any book important to the curricula is supplied, and books that are of no value to students' studies, as well as books containing extremist ideas, are dropped.” Al-Daghriri denied the universities libraries had no Islamic books. “It contains some 130,000 Islamic works. Islamic education is part of university requirements and we are required to provide the references,” he told Al-Watan. “We have plans to provide modern ones as well.”
