Desecrated Quran from Amazon
On May 5th 2005 Azza Basarudin received a Quran she had ordered from Bellwether Books, a third-party seller of Amazon.com. To her shock she discovered profanity and the words "Death to all Muslims" scrawled in thick black marker on the inside cover.
"I dropped the book because I didn't know what to do," she said during the news conference. "I was paralyzed after 9/11 - I couldn't leave my house for a couple of weeks - and I realized that fear was coming back. I couldn't even go near this book for a couple of days. I feel like I'm being violated all over again because I'm a Muslim."
Last week, MPAC contacted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' office to demand that Amazon investigate the incident, issue a public condemnation of such hateful speech, terminate employees responsible, and support hate crime prevention programs. Amazon.com and Bellwether Books have admitted to the mistake, but failed to take any of the correction actions necessary to remedy the situation to the Ms. Basarudin's satisfaction.
The Associated Press, which covered the news conference, reported today that Bellwether is also suspended indefinitely from selling Qurans through Amazon.com, according to a spokeswoman for the online bookseller.
"We are gratified to learn that Amazon.com has suspended its relationship with Bellwether," said Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati, "but they have a responsibility to loudly condemn such hateful rhetoric and take pro-active measures to enhance educational programs that foster religious tolerance."
MPAC issued the following action request:
Contact Amazon.com to request that the online bookseller take decisive steps to resolve this case and ensure it is not repeated, including:
Publicly condemn such desecration of a sacred text with hateful speech targeting Muslims,
Terminate relations with Bellwether Books, the third-party seller that delivered the desecrated Quran to Ms. Basarudin,
Support and fund educational programs that foster religious tolerance.
Send correspondence to:
Patty Smith [email protected]
Director of Corporate Communications
Views: 7615
Declared enemies of peace (Islam) are venting their frustrations like someone who wishes to quench the moonlight with the gas in their mouth. ...billows upon billows...the state of the ignorant. Islam, will be victorious. Amin.
Maiasalam.
Badmus
I bid Salam!
Also I'm kind of curious about something. If it was your sister who said she was the victim of a hate crime how would you feel if I suggested she maybe did it herself for the money? Again I'm just curious. But anyway thanks for asking.
May peace be upon you and those dear to you.
What does anyone who MAY have handled the contents wish to say about religious persecution? To say that one wished to decline comment would amount to one clearly answering such a question. Also what sort of feelings might they have concerning postal workers harmed by terrorism and who might they suppose is responsible? People are human and humans have feelings about people they care about. Additionally do the companies involved in some way participate in promoting (or rather perhaps opposing) hate speech? Individuals are certainly entitled to their opinion but companies presumably have more reason to seem accommodating.
As long as we are demanding that someone lose what might be his or her household's primary source of income (although crime should be expected to have a negative effect on those who commit it) what more could potentially be discovered about the marker used by the hate-criminal? The FBI makes a science of this sort of thing. If they wish to pass up an opportunity to improve relations with Muslims then perhaps it might prove useful to discover that sort of thing too. Either way in light of recent events the case seems somehow likely to impact national security.
it's a policy and they are trying to make people accept it a bit by bit. I was watching channel 6 in south and that was that show who comes at 6 AM morning! I have no clue who the hell this guys are but they were spewing the hate on Islam in unbelievable manner. plus they were saying that the palestinians were digging in jerusalem and destroying the temple of Salomon Alaihe Assalam. and they give some pictures of palestinian homes demolished by Israel army like they are giving some proofs for the Americans!
Inna le Allah wa Inna Elaihe rajeoon. this guys are just warming like Tom delay said in his last speech! we hopefully gonna have to face this new waves of ignorants managing the worlds from ignorance. I wish some of the palestinians paid attention to that show and debunk it!? cause they can have enough tools to debunk it than me.
since we are just peaceful people and we never intended to find ourselves hated by others because of the Last message of God, we have one easy thing to do is to debunk this guys with proofs as much as we can. untill Allah help us to stand in the right way and make those who took us as enemies, return back to their bloody caves...
So, nothing surprising here. Obviously, the Koran was originally purchased by a non-muslim; he did not like it and wrote profanities, like anybody may write on his own property. This simply shows what some non-muslims think about Islam; and it is high time, muslims found out the realities of life in a secular and free society like US.
What will apologies achieve -- obviously nothing; in the American society, they are just empty words anyhow.
The world is too complex to everybody's liking; so one will have to get used to the real world if one wants to live -- no sense rioting -- I doubt it will start any kind of rioting in Los Angeles.
You start complaining too much about such incidents, the right wing and christian fundamentalists will ensure that plenty of such incidents happen in US; they will keep the pot boiling.
By the way, why it took 15 days for the story to appear.