"Radical" books in east London libraries
BBC NEWS | UK | Radical books in London libraries
A report by the so-called Centre for Social Cohesion, a project of the right-wing think tank Civitas, has found that libraries in Tower Hamlets, the London borough with the densest Muslim population, have Islamic book collections they say are dominated by "radicals" and Wahhabis. The report, entitled Hate on the State and written by James Brandon and Douglas Murray ([1], [2]), can be downloaded in PDF form here.
The evidence in the report contains a fair amount of the usual inflammatory material taken out of context, and includes a diversion into "views on women" (page 27 of the PDF), and the choice of an extract from an obscure 56-page tract on polygamy seems intended to add ridicule to suspicion - as with the attention drawn on page 14 of the PDF to Ibn Baz's insistence that the world was flat (in contradiction to the generality of Muslim scholarly opinion). They do note that there are 70 works by Hamza Yusuf in the libraries, many of them on loan, suggesting a higher demand for them than for the salafi texts.
The issue raised by the report is an important one, though - who is responsible for stocking the Islamic collections in public libraries? It's possible that it's something many Muslims do not think of much; mainstream bookshops like Foyle's and Borders are not well-stocked with books on Islam (although Foyles was in the 1990s, when Christine Foyle was in charge; Waterstone's in Gower Street has a better than usual collection) because Muslims tend to go to Islamic bookshops for such books. The "salafi" tracts Brandon and Murray refer to are mostly inexpensive and I would imagine that the average "salafi" already has most of them on his own bookshelf.
It's highly likely, of course, that many of these books were donated, not bought (which may well be why Croydon public libraries did, the last time I visited, have pro-Qadiani books, something Brandon and Murray noticed was in short supply in Tower Hamlets, given that south London has a large Qadiani presence). Perhaps the libraries need to give some thought to the composition of their collections, rather than putting any donated book on the shelves. They would not need to consult with Douglas Murray to get a more balanced collection - they need only consult with a few local imams. On the other hand, that a few of these books are in public libraries is no bad thing in itself; they are valuable as sources of information on their authors and the tendencies behind them (besides the fact that most of the content of some of them is inoffensive), but they should not dominate, even due to the alternatives being out on loan.
Comments
asSalamu alaykum,
As for Shaykh bin Baz and the whole flat Earth issue, I never did find a source for those claims. This should help, insha Allah:
http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/miscellaneous/miscellaneous/0040819.htm (these are actually the words of bin Baz, rahimahullah- they used to have the audio file there, but I don't know where it has gone).
However, we should also remember that the shaykh was a geocentricist (a position on which I'm not aware of any dissent except for very recently in history). Martin Lings once said he never could trace the point at which heliocentricism reached the Muslim world (I'll assume it was the colonial period).
Other than that we have your usual negligence, which passes over the fact that much or even most of what these writers criticise is genuinely Muslim practice/belief (e.g. polygyny, belief in magic etc) regardless of sectarian persuasion.
But I suppose you and your spineless brethren fail to mention that, which is perhaps why 'traditional' Muslims aren't at the receiving end of so much flak. I wonder, if Tower Hamlets had received similar complaints about copies of 'Umdat asSalik, whether you would have been singing the same tune. But consistency always goes down the toilet with you, doesn't it Yusuf?
Posted by: Anon. | September 6, 2007 1:57 PM
In fact, oh brave one, I'm sure even you have realised that the vast majority of statements highlighted by the report have nothing objectionable in them from even your point of view. Perhaps you might try and promote 'Umdat asSalik and see how many fans you get in Tower Hamlets council?
Posted by: Anon. | September 6, 2007 2:05 PM
What is so annoying about reports like this is the assumption that Muslims are inherently psychopathic: apparently, on taking the shahadah, a mere flick through a book by Mawdudi or Ibn Tammiyah, and - hey presto - off we trot to blow someone up. Perhaps one day, someone other than a foaming at the mouth Neocon might try asking what really makes people commit acts of terorism.
Posted by: Yunus Yakoub Islam | September 6, 2007 3:30 PM
In Russia, Wahhab's work has been put on the government list of books banned as "extremist literature". In one of the Russian Federation's republics (namely Dagestan) Russian-language translations of the Quran have also been made illegal. Part of the vicious repression of Muslims taking place in today's Russia...
"try asking what really makes people commit acts of terorism" -- Indeed, why should we, while Reagan's former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, a former German Cabinet Minister, and the former Chief of Staff of Russia's armed forces are telling us loud and clear that we are witnessing false flag attacks?
Wa salaam
Posted by: Zanjabila | September 8, 2007 12:58 AM