Jordan has banned Saddam Hussein's new novel on the grounds the tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats a foreign intruder could hurt relations between the two countries, censors and the publisher said yesterday.
'Get out of here, curse you!', believed to have been penned by the ousted Iraqi leader before the US-led war, was set to be released in Jordan and other Arab countries on Thursday by a Jordanian company with the permission of Saddam's family.
"Publishing this novel will harm the Iraqi-Jordanian relationship and we are keen to have the best relations with Iraq. Jordan will not approve its publication. If they want to publish it they have to do it abroad," Ahmad al-Qudah, head of the government's Press and Publication Department, told Reuters.
The publisher said he had printed 10,000 copies for distribution in Jordan and other Arab countries, including Iraq, after winning initial permission. He said censors changed their mind after a local newspaper reported the upcoming launch.
"They gave us the okay from day one, but with all this publicity the censors called and told us to stop everything," the publisher told Reuters, asking his name and his company not be printed for fear of government reprisals. "I will change the cover and publish it abroad. This book is going to be published in the Arab world, I tell you that."
Under Jordanian law, the department has authority to censor books published in Jordan, a close US ally. The publisher said Saddam's daughter Raghad, who lives in Amman, had given him permission to publish the book, in which the daughter writes a dedication to her jailed father.
A copy of the book was stored in Baghdad's Information Ministry ready for publication when the war broke out in 2003. Saddam, facing war crime charges, was credited with writing other books including 'Zabiba and the King' - later made into a musical - and 'Men and a City'. Following his overthrow, however, Iraqi writers and intellectuals said Saddam did not write the books himself but got a committee to do it for him.
His latest book tells the story of Salem, a noble Arab tribesman who represents righteousness and Arab nationalism, and defeats his American and Jewish enemies. Illegal copies of the book have circulated in Amman. Earlier this month, Jordan's Ministry of Culture said that it would no longer censor local and international publications after some religious groups had claimed international best seller 'The Da Vinci Code' was offensive.
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