NationStates Jolt Archive


Harry Potter popular with Al Qaeda

Willamena
09-08-2005, 01:10
I thought this story amusing. Agatha Christie is second most popular.
___________________

AFP - Books about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favourite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Quoting a librarian working at the centre, The Washington Times newspaper says JK Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels.

"We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only as Lori is quoted by The Times as saying.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1432952.htm
Mesatecala
09-08-2005, 01:11
That's hilarious... I thought they would despise it..
Rambozo
09-08-2005, 01:11
I thought this story amusing. Agatha Christie is second most popular.
___________________

AFP - Books about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favourite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Quoting a librarian working at the centre, The Washington Times newspaper says JK Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels.

"We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only as Lori is quoted by The Times as saying.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1432952.htm

Great, give more ammunition to the religious right trying to censor Harry Potter. :rolleyes:

"Omgz! Terrorists like Harry Potter!!11!11"
Origami Tigers
09-08-2005, 01:13
Who doesn't like Harry Potter? I mean really... ?
Lord-General Drache
09-08-2005, 01:15
Who doesn't like Harry Potter? I mean really... ?

A lot of people, myself included.
Origami Tigers
09-08-2005, 01:17
A lot of people, myself included.

Well, we can rule you out as a terrorist then. ;)
Markreich
09-08-2005, 01:17
This moves us one step closer in to proving my theory that all fundamentalist terrorism can be fixed if only we could provide free Internet porn to the entire world...
Seosavists
09-08-2005, 01:17
Told you guys the pope was infallible! :D
Neo Kervoskia
09-08-2005, 01:21
Harry Potter is of the Devil! Fuck # 1
Infoclypse Industries
09-08-2005, 01:25
the first book was okay, the second was a little less so and honestly it went downhill from there. I wouldn't have pegged Islamic fundis as commercialized mass media types, wich is really what harry potter became after book one hit it so big.
Oak Trail
09-08-2005, 01:28
This moves us one step closer in to proving my theory that all fundamentalist terrorism can be fixed if only we could provide free Internet porn to the entire world...

Yep, I agree. All these terrorist need is some love that doesn't involved a Camel, goat, or Llama.
Markreich
09-08-2005, 01:29
Yep, I agree. All these terrorist need is some love that doesn't involved a Camel, goat, or Llama.

:confused:
I thought llamas were endemic to South America??
Lord-General Drache
09-08-2005, 01:30
Well, we can rule you out as a terrorist then. ;)

Or so you think. :P You'd be surprised who I've got on my speeddial. Although, I'm prolly gonna get the CIA investigating me now. Again. *sighs*
Origami Tigers
09-08-2005, 01:34
Or so you think. :P You'd be surprised who I've got on my speeddial. Although, I'm prolly gonna get the CIA investigating me now. Again. *sighs*

Be careful! I'm pretty sure they're investigating me for saying "bomb" on my phone several times. (i.e. "That was da BOMB!!!)
The Soviet Americas
09-08-2005, 01:35
Great, give more ammunition to the religious right trying to censor Harry Potter. :rolleyes:

"Omgz! Terrorists like Harry Potter!!11!11"
Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing.
Seosavists
09-08-2005, 01:39
Be careful! I'm pretty sure they're investigating me for saying "bomb" on my phone several times. (i.e. "That was da BOMB!!!)
symtex is a good word too and anthrax and dirty bomb. I felt like anthrax after last night. That party blew like symtex. That porn flick was da dirty bomb!
Oak Trail
09-08-2005, 01:39
Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing.

and yet you typed anyways. :p
Kirtothalsar
09-08-2005, 02:04
Hey, I'm just glad they're actually giving them something to do... Hm, if they're being given books, maybe it means they're not being tortured anymore.

Rock on! (I'm quite the Potter fan, incidentally ;) )
The Soviet Americas
09-08-2005, 02:27
and yet you typed anyways. :p
I was wondering if anybody would notice. :p
Cpt_Cody
09-08-2005, 06:09
Finally, evidence that there really is torture going on in Gitmo! I mean, they must have done some terrible things to those terrorists in order to get them liking Harry Potter books.

:D
Andaluciae
09-08-2005, 06:15
Well, besides the fact that the most recent book is written in an almost condescendingly juvenile fashion, and the plot was quite easily predictable, and *rambles a while*, and to top it off I have seen fan-fiction that was written better than the most recent book, so there.

But seriously, that is perhaps one of the more amusing stories I have ever read.

Of course, you must realize how they got introduced to it...a TORTURE tactic!

Yes, US interrogators would read aloud from the Harry Potter books to their interrogatees for hours on end until they confessed! Oh wait, that's just my sister's Harry Potter talking book tapes running constantly...yikes.
The Great Sixth Reich
09-08-2005, 06:16
Now we know how they will conduct attacks! That tornado in England (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/4725279.stm) really must of been a bunch of trolls just like Voldemort did in the last book!
Ninhursag
09-08-2005, 06:23
Harry Potter is terrible. Its just bad literature. JK lived in her car b4 they were published for a reason. However its an effective gateway book. And as long as it gets kids reading. eventually they will evolve into better literature, such as 1984, the portrait of dorian grey, LOTR, bram stoker's dracual, and so on. But really its a bad book, so i say let the terrorists read. its like torture.
The Great Sixth Reich
09-08-2005, 06:25
Harry Potter is terrible. Its just bad literature. JK lived in her car b4 they were published for a reason. However its an effective gateway book. And as long as it gets kids reading. eventually they will evolve into better literature, such as 1984, the portrait of dorian grey, LOTR, bram stoker's dracual, and so on. But really its a bad book, so i say let the terrorists read. its like torture.

That's an opinion. In my opinion, all the "better literature" you listed are terrible and "like torture" to read. In particlar LOTR.
Neo Rogolia
09-08-2005, 06:26
Hey, I'm just glad they're actually giving them something to do... Hm, if they're being given books, maybe it means they're not being tortured anymore.

Rock on! (I'm quite the Potter fan, incidentally ;) )


I wish I could get an all-expense-paid vacation to Club Gitmo. I could use a vacation :p
Neo Rogolia
09-08-2005, 06:27
Harry Potter is terrible. Its just bad literature. JK lived in her car b4 they were published for a reason. However its an effective gateway book. And as long as it gets kids reading. eventually they will evolve into better literature, such as 1984, the portrait of dorian grey, LOTR, bram stoker's dracual, and so on. But really its a bad book, so i say let the terrorists read. its like torture.



Oh my goodness!!!! You listed my favorite book!!! I <3 The Picture of Dorian Gray!
More Cowbellium
09-08-2005, 06:35
symtex is a good word too and anthrax and dirty bomb. I felt like anthrax after last night. That party blew like symtex. That porn flick was da dirty bomb!

Now they're monitoring this thread! Ahhh! :sniper: ASSASINATION ASSASINATION... The Eagle has Landed (and other various phrases-turned-codes).

You think they'd hate Harry Potter seeing as they supposedly hate everything Western, consumerist, etc. Yet there they are, reading Harry Potter while Saddam is eating his Doritos. Let's face it, they're in denial about they're 'fondness' for the Western world.
Neo Rogolia
09-08-2005, 06:36
Now they're monitoring this thread! Ahhh! :sniper: ASSASINATION ASSASINATION... The Eagle has Landed (and other various phrases-turned-codes).

You think they'd hate Harry Potter seeing as they supposedly hate everything Western, consumerist, etc. Yet there they are, reading Harry Potter while Saddam is eating his Doritos. Let's face it, they're in denial about they're 'fondness' for the Western world.



Correction Police to the rescue: Saddam wasn't anti-Western, his nation was pretty secular. It was the black sheep of the Middle East :D
Ninhursag
09-08-2005, 06:37
Oh my goodness!!!! You listed my favorite book!!! I <3 The Picture of Dorian Gray!

Well its good reading, if you happen to enjoy victorian literature, may i make a few recomendations: Les Miserables by victor hugo, Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Curusoe, Thomas DeQuince's Confessions of an Opium Eater, Goerge Gordon Lord Byron's Don Juan. For anymore form the victorian age or any other, drop me a telegram.
The Great Sixth Reich
09-08-2005, 06:38
Correction Police to the rescue: Saddam wasn't anti-Western, his nation was pretty secular. It was the black sheep of the Middle East :D
...and he did a ton of "deals" (*hint*;)) with the French. :)
FilthyScum
09-08-2005, 07:11
Harry Potter is terrible. Its just bad literature. JK lived in her car b4 they were published for a reason. However its an effective gateway book..

Dude, it's just a kids book - do you do critiques of Dr Suess as well? Green eggs and ham puhlease

Oh and the only reason they're reading HP in the detention camps is because the guards have flushed their Koran down the toilet
FilthyScum
09-08-2005, 07:12
(while we're on it, I have proof that Dr Suess didn't even go to Med school)
Willamena
09-08-2005, 07:14
Dude, it's just a kids book - do you do critiques of Dr Suess as well? Green eggs and ham puhlease

Oh and the only reason they're reading HP in the detention camps is because the guards have flushed their Koran down the toilet
They have toilets? :eek:
FilthyScum
09-08-2005, 07:16
They have toilets? :eek:

Oh no, I said "toilet". Singular.
Oak Trail
09-08-2005, 07:17
(while we're on it, I have proof that Dr Suess didn't even go to Med school)

Show us your proof you heathen! :p
Gymoor II The Return
09-08-2005, 07:21
Show us your proof you heathen! :p

And prove he didn't have a doctorate in anything else!
Zelda Hime
09-08-2005, 23:31
That's an opinion. In my opinion, all the "better literature" you listed are terrible and "like torture" to read. In particlar LOTR.

My particularly bad book in that list is 1984. UGH. I never had to struggle so hard to read any book, not even Dune. At least in the end Dune ended up being a good book (if you can understand and make it past Herbert's long windedness), but 1984 is hopelessly bad.
Zelda Hime
09-08-2005, 23:35
Harry Potter is terrible. Its just bad literature. JK lived in her car b4 they were published for a reason. However its an effective gateway book. And as long as it gets kids reading. eventually they will evolve into better literature, such as 1984, the portrait of dorian grey, LOTR, bram stoker's dracual, and so on. But really its a bad book, so i say let the terrorists read. its like torture.

I think your missing the point that this is supposed to be a *children's* book. It seems to me that her target group is about 8 yrs old (3rd grade). This is phenomenal writing for the limitations that she has to stick to to make sure that kids can enjoy the book. I'd never give 1984 to and 8 yr old and expect them to be *able* to read it much less enjoy reading it.
Fischerspooner
09-08-2005, 23:38
I thought this story amusing. Agatha Christie is second most popular.
___________________

AFP - Books about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favourite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Quoting a librarian working at the centre, The Washington Times newspaper says JK Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels.

"We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only as Lori is quoted by The Times as saying.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1432952.htm

Hm, so they are fans of fantastical badly written nonsense?

AND Harry Potter?

HURR
Sel Appa
09-08-2005, 23:38
Harry Potter is a mind-sucker like Spongebob. It's as Tony Blair puts it: "absolute rubbish".
Drunk commies deleted
09-08-2005, 23:39
Who doesn't like Harry Potter? I mean really... ?
I'm not a fan.
Xyxaxyz
10-08-2005, 01:17
I think this is a pretty revealing story.

The so-called "terrorists" aren't all that fundamentalist in terms of Islam and anti-Westernism. They just hate the stuff we do, or the stuff they think we do.
AkhPhasa
10-08-2005, 01:39
Hmmm, they enjoy stories about an underdog who discovers he has the power to overthrow his big bad oppressors. Who'da thought.