Azza Basarudin and her Koran.
Posted on 05/20/2005 7:47:34 AM PDT by forty_years
As the Koran-flushing-in-Cuba episode becomes old news, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has helpfully found a way to keep Koran desecration in the public eye. It does so – and I draw on MPAC's two press releases (here and here), plus reports from the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times – by promoting the story of one Azza Basarudin, who bought a copy of the Koran, Oxford University Press edition.
A doctoral candidate at the University of California at Los Angeles specializing in Middle East studies, Basarudin ordered the volume in early May from Bellwether Books, a used book store in McKeesport, Penn. that distributes its wares via amazon.com. She opened the Koran on arrival and says she found written on the inside cover a profanity along with "Death to all Muslims." Basarudin recalls her response:
I dropped the book because I didn't know what to do. 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.
Basarudin asked MPAC, Los Angeles' contribution to the radical Islamic lobby, for assistance. It agreed and duly contacted Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, to whom it laid down the usual Islamist strictures: an investigation, a public condemnation, "a policy of zero tolerance toward this type of behavior," and (of course) financial support for MPAC.
Amazon at first only apologized for "distress caused by incident," so MPAC turned up the heat by holding a press conference on May 18 (at the Islamic Center of Southern California, no less).
The publicity worked. Patty Smith, director of corporate communications for Amazon, responded by calling the matter "appalling" and distanced her company from it. She noted that the Koran was purchased from Bellwether Books, not Amazon itself. She explained, "This was not our inventory, it was nowhere in our order or fulfillment process. It was a used book purchased through a third party." Still, she apologized, offered Basarudin reimbursement, a gift certificate, and promised to fire any employee who defaces Korans. She also – the kicker – indefinitely suspended Bellwether from selling Korans through Amazon and said that if the problem recurred, Bellwether would be banished from Amazon.
That meant Richard Roberts, owner of Bellwether, had to respond, and he did, denying that his employees defaced the book and pointing out that used books frequently have markings. He explained how the staff gives a cursory check to the four hundred books it sends out each day without closely inspecting them. He apologized to Basarudin, said any employees found desecrating the Koran would be fired, and offered to replace the book. He also promised to assign, in the Los Angeles Times's wording, "a quality-control officer to rigorously check incoming and outgoing books."
The head of MPAC responded unenthusiastically to these concessions: "We are gratified to learn that Amazon.com has suspended its relationship with Bellwether, 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 instructed its acolytes to contact Amazon and urge it decisively "to resolve this case and ensure it is not repeated." That meant:
Azza Basarudin and her Koran. |
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Comments: This incident, far quieter than the Newsweek flap, is in its own way no less instructive or important.
(1) MPAC did not mention that the customer in question, Azza Basarudin, 30, is an Islamist affiliated at one time with the Islamic Institute of Human Rights, headed by Wissam Nasr. (Nasr now heads the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) office in New York.) For an example of her thinking, note above, how she presents 9/11 not as an occasion when Muslims violated Americans but when Americans violated Muslims. In other words, this is no average customer.
(2) MPAC also neglected to mention that Basarudin bought a used Koran, not a new one. Used books buyers do not normally expect vendors to clean their purchases of markings by former owners.
(3) Is it pure coincidence that this Koran episode is so perfectly times to follow the Newsweek and Guantánamo controversy? One can't but wonder if Basarudin, like at least seven other U.S. Muslims, is faking her own persecution. Or if, like its colleague CAIR, MPAC stokes anti-Muslim hate even where it does not exist.
(4) If Muslims succeed in requiring that Korans undergo inspection for impurities before being sold, booksellers might well cease handling Korans.
(5) The idea that a Muslim has the right, without proof, to accuse a non-Muslim of blasphemy, as Basarudin and MPAC have done, brings to mind the notorious anti-blasphemy laws in force in Pakistan. There, as the World Council of Churches explained in 2000, those laws "have become a major tool in the hands of extremists to settle personal scores against members of the religious minorities particularly Christians." In the United States, the blasphemy accusation serves as the basis for a Jesse Jackson-like corporate shakedown (note MPAC's demand for Amazon to fund its programming).
(6) That Amazon suspended Bellwether from selling Korans via Amazon is a symbolic punishment rather than a substantive one, but it matters nonetheless. Can one imagine any other book's defacement leading to such a penalty?
(7) This episode is yet another instance of Islamist organizations relentlessly seeking special privileges for Islam. At a time when American Catholics must endure "art" that consists of the crucifix in urine and a Virgin Mary made in part of elephant dung, why should American Muslims be indulged in their exquisite sensibilities? As Stephen Schwartz keeps repeating, if Islam is to flourish in America, it must adapt to America.
(8) Amazon should answer MPAC firmly in the negative, reinstituting Bellwether's right to sell Korans at Amazon, making no public condemnations, and not giving money to MPAC. If you agree with this conclusion, let Patty Smith at Amazon (psmith@amazon.com) know your thoughts.
http://netwmd.com/articles/article1014.html
Maybe tomorrow she'll find a finger in her chili.
I thought women weren't allowed to touch the Koran.
Ping...
This sounds like the religion of extortion to me.
Only when they're menstruating.
Well pardon us. That writing hurt a lot less the what your fellow adherents have done in the name of your religion.
This sounds like the religion of extortion to me.
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In reality, they are just like every other group of UNDESIREABLES in our society who are taking advantage of, and ABUSING, our freedoms. They are playing the system and milking it for all they can get -- especially when it comes to the anti-American leftist media.
When they're on jihad, anything is allowed...
Amazon.com appeased these idiots!! They should have told them to go to hell - what a bunch of idiots serves them right.
Why should you feel 'violated'? Maybe you feel that way not just because you are a muslim but because you support what the terrorists did?
Note that Bellwether Books now has to pay someone to do "quality control" after the shakedown....guess who will be picking up the tab for THAT???
I bought one of those "koran" books from Amazon and now it smells like urine, luckly the hogs don't mind.
People like this should be sent back to their dark hole Islamic countries and should be barred from entering USA.
You know what, the first thing is to arrest people at CAIR and MPAC on terrorist activities. It is an open secret CAIR has been connected with the islamic terrorists. MPAC is also connected with the Islamic terrorists.
WHy in the world are we bending over backwards for these people? It does not make sense to me. Our businesses, our governments, our public offices....everything should respect this violent Jihadi religion while they kill us, lott us, exploit our freedoms only to destroy our societies and rape us.
I am getting tired of the Islamic whining.....We should each call our senators, government representatives and demand them to adopt a tough line against CAIR, MPAC and other Islamic related organizations that are out there only to destroy us.
One one hand FBI, SY and CIA say they are fighting terrorism. But on the other hand they bend over backwards for Islamists. It does not make sense to me!
Good reason for me to continue to shop at Barnes & Noble.
Thanks for the ping!
"One one hand FBI, SY and CIA say they are fighting terrorism. But on the other hand they bend over backwards for Islamists. It does not make sense to me!"
Me either. Matter of fact, it pi$$e$ me off!
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