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| NYC libraries offer terror 'recruiting' Islamic texts |
| 2007-10-08 |
| Hard-line Islamic books that justify violence against non-Muslim societies - including texts used as terrorist "recruiting tools" - are freely available in New York City public libraries. A Daily News spot check found a book by an Islamic theorist who inspired Osama Bin Laden and terror Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, as well as others that promote the hatred of other religions and one with the misogynistic title: "Women Who Deserve to Go to Hell." Several of these texts can be found at the Brooklyn Public Library's main branch, a mile from the Al Farooq mosque, where Rahman once inspired followers to try to blow up New York. In the main stacks sits "Milestones," a notorious work revered by Bin Laden and Rahman and penned by Seyyid Qutb, a Muslim Brotherhood member executed in 1966 for trying to overthrow the Egyptian government. In its final report, the Sept. 11 Commission noted Rahman and Bin Laden's attraction to Qutb: "Bin Laden shares Qutb's stark view, permitting him and his followers to rationalize even unprovoked mass murder." An August NYPD report on the "homegrown threat" of terrorism contended Qutb believed "militant jihad had to be used ... to overthrow non-Islamic governments and to bring about a 'pure' Islamic society." Qutb's treatise is hardly the only hard-line book on library shelves in New York and Long Island, The News found. The reference room of the Brooklyn main branch carries "Fundamentals of Tawheed." In it, author Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips writes, "Un-Islamic government must be sincerely hated and despised for the pleasure of God." In the research section of the New York Public Library in Manhattan, The News found "Islamic Fatawa Regarding Women" and "Women Who Deserve to Go to Hell." "We have no intention to accuse women when we say that they will be a majority in hell," wrote author Manssor Abdul Hakim. The availability of such controversial books in public libraries points out the difficulties a society faces in balancing an aversion to censorship against the need to prevent terrorism. "These are also recruiting tools," said counterterrorism consultant Ilana Freedman of the Gerard Group International. Freedman said she was not suggesting banning books, "but without balance, without counterpoint, children cannot make informed decisions." Librarians said it is not up to them to decide what belongs on their shelves. "We don't censor what people read," said Mary Haines, director of the South Country Public Library in Bellport, L.I., which just added "Milestones" to its collection. Brooklyn Public Library spokeswoman Ruth Wagner said libraries have the responsibility to be inclusive, and "efforts are made to represent the widest possible diversity of views." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Librarians are the ultimate amoral relativists. If it's printed, it's fit to purvey. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-08 13:35 |