In the modern Arab world, whose mass consciousness is still religious, Islamic, and whose state legislations are based to a greater or lesser extent on Islam, censors of literature use such terms as “offending the religion” and “offending public morality” to prosecute those authors who criticize archaic social foundations. The role of censor here can be performed by an established religious organ or by a popular religious association. The article discusses some notorious cases of religious censorship of Arabic literature in the 20th - early 21st century, primarily of fiction prose, and gives evaluation of Arab censorship’s effectiveness at present time. Refs 6.