This picture was taken at a Virgin Megastore in Qatar. Note the recommendation on the right. Elder of Ziyon points out that this isn't just a Qatari phenomenon - he found this blog post from Bahrain that Virgin recommends Mein Kampf there too.Mein Kampf has been a best seller in Arabic for years - Lisa Goldman described it as being the first book she saw for sale at Amman's Queen Alia airport in 2007 (she didn't mention the name of the bookshop, but she does mention Virgin in the same post when discussing the bookshop at Rafik al-Hariri airport in Beirut). And somehow I doubt that the prominent recommendation is so unusual either.
How about this from September 2010?
But one thing that Beirutis have always been good at is carrying on regardless. Restaurants open, bougainvillea blooms expansively, books are launched, film festivals abound, and hapless journalists go about their business. Despite a friend telling me that Mein Kampf is on the Downtown Virgin Megastore’s bestseller list (It could be innocent. Could it?), the city is full of bright and beautiful ideas. Estella and I (my 1991 Kawasaki Estrella – she lost the ‘r’ in homage to the anti-heroine of Great Expectations) have had plenty to do sounding out bookish thoughts all over the city.So what's new here?
What's new is that Virgin is owned by Richard Branson, who also owns Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Branson is British - not an Arab. And Branson's chain has just been 'outed' even though it's been marketing Mein Kampf in the Arab world for years (and it's conceivable that the decisions are made by local management and Branson has little or no say in them).
Well, if it awakens the West to the virulent anti-Semitism in the Arab world, I am happy to pass it on.
