Antwerp, Belgium: Europe and the Arabs

The Belgian city of Antwerp hosted an Arabic book fair, organized by the Arab-German Library, as part of other fairs it organizes in various European cities throughout the year on a weekly basis. This coincided with another fair in the Belgian capital, Brussels, organized by another Arab library in Europe. The Antwerp fair was held yesterday, Saturday, the weekend, providing everyone with the opportunity to visit the fair, which was held in a location easily accessible by public transport and also in an area with a large presence of foreign immigrants, especially Turks and Moroccans.
We toured the fair, and there were a large and varied selection of books on politics, religion, economics, human development, cooking, novels, children's books, and translated works.
Despite technological advancements and other means of communication via telephones and the internet, there were those who were keen to attend the fair.
In a statement to the "Europe and the Arabs" website and newspaper, a responsible employee at the library said, "We are the Arab-German Library, headquartered in Germany, and we organize such fairs on a weekly and regular basis in almost all of Europe. We are now in Antwerp, Belgium. We have previously visited other countries such as Italy, Bulgaria, and others. The goal is to spread Arabic books and facilitate access to them for Arabs living in Europe, reminding them of the importance of books. Regarding the types of books, the responsible employee, nicknamed Abu Anas, said, "There are books on human development, psychology, religious books, Arabic novels, and novels translated from English, Russian, French, and others." He added that there is a great demand for Arabic language books, as well as for European foreigners, including people learning Arabic and coming to obtain Arabic books. He noted that it is not limited to the elderly from Arab communities who buy religious books, but there is also a demand from young people, especially for religious books. He added that the best-selling books are human development books and children's books.