The "Arabs Without God" crowd-funding project has got off to a great start, with £312 raised in the first 24 hours. The aim is to raise £4,600 ($6,200) over the next four weeks which will cover the cost of translating the book into Arabic. The Arabic version will then be posted on the internet where it can be accessed by anyone free of charge.

A big thank-you to the people who have donated so far, and to many more who have been posting about it on Twitter and Facebook.

On Twitter, John Pollock highlighted the importance of translating books into Arabic, quoting the famous line from the Arab Human Development Reports that more books had been translated into Spanish in a single year than had been translated into Arabic over the last 900 years. 

I've often wondered how they counted them but, even so, the point is broadly true: there is a distinct lack of translated books in Arabic, and especially books like "Arabs Without God" that challenge people's ideas by tackling sensitive or taboo subjects. (There's more information about the book here, plus an extract from the first chapter here.)
  

 
Although there are thought to be almost 300 million Arabic speakers worldwide, the market for books is relatively small. A novel in Arabic is considered a success if it sells just 3,000 copies. Publishers in the region face a host of difficulties, including censorship and piracy, which I once discussed in an article for the Guardian.

Another important factor is that the cost of producing books puts them beyond the pocket of many who might like to read them. "For Arabs, buying a book is like buying perfume," Andre Gaspard, co-founder of Saqi Books told me. "A book is a luxury in Lebanon, Syria, Morocco and Egypt."

Providing an Arabic translation of "Arabs Without God" free of charge via the internet will overcome that problem and should also get round most of the difficulties caused by censorship. To my mind, it's a worthwhile project and you can help bring it to fruition by making a donation through Kickstarter.