Thank you for confirming why I no longer go to Borders.

We have Lizardoids everywhere!

Bwaahaaahaaahaaa!

Borders should move to France.

Time to get that Army of Davids out there to verify this story. Are in fact all the Korans on the top shelf?

I might just have to stop by my local Borders today...

"Clerks got better things to do than get killed".

I am sure that all sorts of US companies are doing this so as to avoid any violence. While I don't like it one can hardly blame them. Until all the Muslims are rounded up and sent back to where they fit in, a fear of violence will always pervade any matter that may offend them.

Pig fat on all Korans now...got a mission ...

It is invisible will defile their piece of crap religious text...

Move them Korans around too like to the porn sections...

Borders has made an enemy of LGF-ers.

Borders can fear Muslims all they want. Muslims can fear this:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

How long before the female employees start wearing burkas?

Well now that I know I can piss off the Mohammadans by putting a Koran on the bottom shelf; I think I have a little stock room reorganization to do in every bookstore I frequent. Put them in the cookbook section next to Pork Fat Rules! by Emeril Lagasse.

The safety and security of our bottom line is of utmost importance to us.

There, fixed it for 'em.

Update: NYU Leftist dhimmis appease Islamo-fascists.

Would be a shame if copies of books about pigs and dogs got mixed up in that high and holy shelf. Or the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, for that matter.

Looks like somebody forgot to tell the Olathe store; they have 'em all on the bottom row - right under the Judaism section. Oh, the humanity!

Expect a denunciation from the White House any second. Oh Yeah, forgot. Bush is scared of Muslims too.

I may just have to thumb through a few Korans after I've eaten a nice big bag of porkrinds, some bacon, and a big greasy pork sandwich.

Well like others here I think it is time to visit my local Borders and check out the Koran section. It would seem to me that it needs to be moved to the Military History section with books on guerilla warfare.

Actually it is not that hard of a concept. Christian will burn books, Muslims will burn buildings...and behead the employees...and blow up their headquarters...and...

But of course, it is the Christians who are the greatest danger, because they want to limit free speach.

How come nobody shows the same level of "sensitivity" towards any other religion?

Comedian burns Bible as cameras roll

#15 wordwarp 3/30/2006 08:08AM PST
Would be a shame if copies of books about pigs and dogs got mixed up in that high and holy shelf. Or the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, for that matter.

See, that's funny. Spreading pork grease on the koran is not funny to me. Put the books on the bottom shelf, fine. But deface a book? No thanks.

I'm disturbed by Borders doing this. I was excited that they were going to open up a store near me soon but now...*shrug*. Although I'm sure Barnes & Noble is just as bad.

Would Borders be as concerned about Judaic books being treated with respect? Or Christian books? Heck no. How can the people who make these decisions justify themselves? They can't protect their employees?

This is disgusting. I just sent Borders an email, as follows:

I have recently been made aware of your company's cowardly position regarding both your unwillingness to carry the latest edition of "Free Inquiry" and your policy of only displaying the Koran on the top shelf. If Christians made similar demands, you would laugh at them. Needless to say, I have taken Borders off of the list of bookstores that I will shop at. We in the west cannot continue to prostrate ourselves in the face of Muslim threats and expect to remain free.

Hopefully they fear losing customers as much as they do being targeted by barbarians.

Yeah. And while we're at it, why not put our necks on the chopping block for the followers of moo-hammy? Make it easier for them to behead us; we don't want a complaint from OSHA and the ACLU about carpal tunnel...

I am so sick of this kind of pussified appeasment I could sh*&!

The glorification of a death-cult and the "oh-so-sorry" stance to prevent offense to a stone-age society curdles my infidel blood. Somebody somewhere needs to grow a set and stand up to the tyrants before we all have to stick our butts in the air five times a day.

Enough already. If you as a follower of moo-hammy want to keep the koran on the top shelf in place of honor in your home, then by all means do so. Keep me out of it. The US constitution provides that your religion not be interfered with, but it also provides that you, Mr. "I-am-offended-by-bacon", not interfere with anyone else's life. If you don't like it Kiss my ass and go away.

Dan Patterson
Arrogant Infidel

I am just so disgusted at the total gutlessness of these establishments and those like them. I am very sick of it.
There will be no quarter granted from me.

Is a strip of bacon ever appropriate as a bookmark?

Just wondering.

Bush is scared of Muslims too.

Given the number of Al-Qaeda types and other assorted Islamofascists that have been sent to Paradise by the Armed Forces of the United States since 11 September 2001, I think that this might be a slight exaggeration.

I've been rearranging koran's at Border's for the past year. Everytime I go in I put a few of them upside down.

#21 Fjordman

How come nobody shows the same level of "sensitivity" towards any other religion?

Because other religions won't cut your head off if you offend them. Wookies muslims have been known to do that.

#23 Stormcleaver

Hopefully, but doubtful...

How about Border's showing some b***s and simply not stocking the dratted Koran. Musnuts can simply get copies from their local militia ...er...Mosque library.

The camels nose is in the tent...

“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,” Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday

So what other printed materials are next to be scarified for “our security” -
Removing all books where a pig is a loveable creature?
Not allowing any Jewish literature stored within X meters from a holy Koran copy?
Remove all books and magazines with pictures of exposed parts of female's body?

You get it-- and soon enough living in Saudi Arabia isn't a nightmare anymore but a reality.

#22 megscole64

defacing...nah...no one of the ROPer will know until they face their minor god/demon allah...(yes the one that delivers pizzas only).

Pig fat is clear and will not affect the binding...do we need white gloves to handle them?

Not a real god and not a real religion...just a totalitarian horde from the 7th century.

This is war...understand?

Then they should simply remove all books on Islam from the stores (except those like "Why I Am Not a Muslim") and tell customers that they can be purchased online (if at all).

Litigious Islamists..
Danish Muslims Sue Newspaper Over Drawings

Michael Christiani Havemann, a lawyer representing the Muslim groups, said lawsuit sought $16,100 in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

'We're seeking judgment for both the text and the drawings which were gratuitously defamatory and injurious,' Havemann said.

I'd love to see how they came up with that figure. Maybe it's $0.001 for every muslim with hurt feelings.

Because other religions won't cut your head off if you offend them. Wookies/muslims have been known to do that.

Wookies? Don't offend Star Wars, I'm a fan.

You have been seduced by the dark side of the Force.

“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,”

Imagine for a moment what personal injury lawyers would do to Borders if some of the Arabian moon god's more devout followers should have a Medieval episode and one of more of their employees is harmed. Obsequious grovelling is less of a hassle than a class-action suit in their minds.

the last time i was in Border's the koran's were not on the top shelf. i kinda have to ? this. i'll be curious to see what everyone finds if they check theirs out.

It is not lost on me that Border's makes its bucks off of distributing the written word, no matter how offensive. Copies of Madonna's "Sex" are readily available for anyone so inclined to buy it. You can also probably find various works by Salman Rushdie. Other controversial books, including books about witchcraft, etc. are to be found there.

How uncanny that 'in order not to offend thin-skinned Moslems', Border's caves.

Maybe they should also handle the koran with clean white gloves in order not to offend their sensibilities.

#8 Tim K

Until all the Muslims are rounded up and sent back to where they fit in,

In Hell.

Until then, we must all live under the threat of muslim violence. Theo Van Gough, Rushdee, 3,000 dead Americans, when is it going to reach the point of where sanity prevails and Islam is treated like the loose coalition of terrorists malcontents it is?

Borders was wrong to give in, it will only inspire more threats and more appeasment.

Thank God for Amazon.com

Perhaps I missed it but I don't remember hearing about Borders not stocking the issue of Rolling Stone where that idiot Kayne West posed as Christ.

What's the difference? Oh right, Christians don't behead people who insult them. But certain other bands of savages...

I'd love to see how they came up with that figure. Maybe it's $0.001 for every muslim with hurt feelings.

They probably estimated a number of camels. Don't laugh, they really do that stuff.

Anyone want to get a statement from CAIR?

"Yes, of course the Holy Qur'an must always be on the top shelf. Why do you ask?"

/ROPMA

#21 Fjordman

Must be that wierd Scandanavian sense of humor. I don't get it.

On the other hand, placing them on the top shelf might keep them out of the hands of children...

#28

I've been rearranging koran's at Border's for the past year. Everytime I go in I put a few of them upside down.

I move them to the Occult section, preferably next to the satanic bible.

Somewhat OT, but relevant. Here is the email I received from the only Canadian magazine that published the cartoons, and whose issue that carried them was NOT carried by Chapters (our Borders)(needs two posts)
Dear Western Standard reader,

Our magazine has been sued for publishing the Danish cartoons, and I need your help to fight back!

As you know, the Western Standard was the only mainstream media organ in Canada to publish the Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

We did so for a simple reason: the cartoons were the central fact in one of the largest news stories of the year, and we're a news magazine. We publish the facts and we let our readers make up their minds.

Advertisers stood with us. Readers loved the fact that we treated them like grown-ups. And we earned the respect of many other journalists in Canada who envied our independence. In fact, according to a COMPAS poll last month, fully 70% of Canada's working journalists supported our decision to publish the cartoons.

But not Syed Soharwardy, a radical Calgary Muslim imam.

He asked the police to arrest me for publishing the cartoons. They calmly explained to him that's not what police in Canada do.

So then he went to a far less liberal institution than the police: the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Unlike the Calgary Police Service, they didn't have the common sense to show him the door.

Earlier this month, I received a copy of Soharwardy's rambling, hand-scrawled complaint. It is truly an embarrassing document. He briefly complains that we published the Danish cartoons. But the bulk of his complaint is that we dared to try to justify it - that we dared to disagree with him.

Who says that violence never gets any results? I wont spend any of my money with Borders. I shop at Barnes & Nobel anyways.

Rest of email:

Think about that: In Soharwardy's view, not only should the Canadian media be banned from publishing the cartoons, but we should be banned from defending our right to publish them. Perhaps the Charter of Rights that guarantees our freedom of the press should be banned, too.

Soharwardy's complaint goes further than just the cartoons. It refers to news articles we published about Hamas, a group labelled a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. By including those other articles, he shows his real agenda: censoring any criticism of Muslim extremists.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about Soharwardy's complaint is that he claims our cartoons caused him to receive hate mail. Indeed, his complaint includes copies of a few e-mails from strangers to him. Some of those e-mails even go so far as to call him "humourless" and tell him to "lighten up". Perhaps that's hateful. But all of those e-mails were sent to him before our magazine even published the cartoons. Soharwardy isn't even pretending that this is a legitimate complaint. He's not even trying to hide that this is a nuisance suit.

Soharwardy's complaint should have been thrown out immediately by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, just like the police did. But it wasn't. Which is why I'm writing to you today.

According to our lawyers, we will win this case. It's an infantile complaint, without basis in facts or law. Frankly, it's an embarrassment to the government of Alberta that their tribunal is open to abuse like this.

Our lawyers tell us we're going to win. But not before we have to spend hundreds of hours and up to $75,000 fighting this thing, at our own expense. Soharwardy doesn't have to spend a dime - now that his complaint has been filed, Alberta tax dollars will pay for the prosecution of his complaint. We have to pay for this on our own.

Look, $75,000 isn't going to bankrupt us. But it will sting. We're a small, independent magazine, not a huge company with deep pockets. All of our money is needed to produce the best possible editorial product, not to fight legal battles. This is clearly an abuse of process designed to punish us and deter other media from daring to cross that angry imam in the future.

One of the leaders in Canadian human rights law, Alan Borovoy, was so disturbed by Soharwardy's abuse of the human rights commission that he wrote a public letter about it in the Calgary Herald on March 16th. "During the years when my colleagues and I were labouring to create such commissions, we never imagined that they might ultimately be u

And the ironic thing is that sellers of books are doing this to appease the most ignorant, illiterate bumpkins on the face of the earth. We've all heard how Greece translates more books in one year than the entire Muslim translates in a decade. I'll bet one LGFer buys more books in any given bookstore than all their Muslim customers do in an entire year. Real care for the bottom line there, guys. Chase away the people who read to please ignoramuses who think all the knowledge in the world is contained in Mohammed's Big Book of Magical Hashish Dreams. Oh well, I'm sure those cozy reading nooks will be nice for the prayer rugs once the chairs are cleared away. And they even have bathrooms for the barbarians to wash their feet first!

Do Borders book stores have public restrooms? The Koran should be top shelf in there.

I had noticed at the Border's near work (in the People's Republic of Cambridge) that the Korans are on the top shelf, and hard for me to see (and I'm not exactly short, but probably somewhat average). Maybe they want to keep them out of kid's reach `@:> (Mo with bomb turban)

I like the idea of leaving some on a bottom shelf. I'd suggest leaving copies of the cartoons mixed in with the Korans, but that is likely to get the store burned down.

I don't buy much there anyway because Amazon is so much cheaper, but I think I'll go in and ask for the magazine.

Whoa! Wait till I print this puppy and take it to my local Borders.

And Yale who told Christians and Orthodox Jews to go apply to other universities because Yale Freshpeople HAD to live in mixed sex dormitories creates a special status for their Taliban student "so they can learn from his different point of view".

if you come to this country and threaten violence becuase you are not getting your way, that should be a one-way ticket back to where you came from.

if you are a citizen and threaten violence, why are you not in jail?

end of email:
"During the years when my colleagues and I were labouring to create such commissions, we never imagined that they might ultimately be used against freedom of speech," wrote Borovoy, who is general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Censorship was "hardly the role we had envisioned for human rights commissions. There should be no question of the right to publish the impugned cartoons," he wrote.

Borovoy went even further - he said that the human rights laws should be changed to avoid this sort of abuse in the future. "It would be best, therefore, to change the provisions of the Human Rights Act to remove any such ambiguities of interpretation," he wrote. That's an amazing statement, coming from one of the fathers of the Canadian human rights movement.

I agree with Borovoy: the law should be changed to stop future abuses. But those changes will come too late for us - we're already under attack. The human rights laws, designed as a shield, are being used against us as a sword.

We will file our legal response to Soharwardy's shakedown this week. And we will fight this battle to the end - not just for our own sake, but to defend freedom of the press for all Canadians.

Do you believe that's important? If so, I'd ask you to help us defray our costs. We're accepting donations through our website. It's fast, easy and secure. Just click on [Link: www.westernstandard.ca...]

You can donate any amount from $10 to $10,000. Please help the Western Standard today - and protect freedom for all Canadians for years to come.

Yours gratefully,

Ezra Levant
Publisher

P.S. Remember, Soharwardy's complaint will be prosecuted using tax dollars and government lawyers. We have to rely on our own funds - and the generous support of readers like you.

P.P.S. Please help us now, at [Link: www.westernstandard.ca...]

Tears are actually in my eyes over this.

Whenever I hear that the book business is in jeopardy financially, or that a bookstore is going belly-up here in the oh-so-literate and LLL SF Bay Area, I feel sad for the clerks who are going to be out of jobs, but I also feel ... glad, because with very few exceptions the publishing industry and booksellers are major appeasers and it makes me sick.

One exception is Doubleday -- a major mainstream publishing house which has just released Bruce Bawer's book While Europe Slept. A truly profound amazing account of Europe's impending suicide, by an American expatriate living in Norway. He's gay and LLLs can't attach their usual "knuckle-dragging Christian conservative" tag to him. His eyes are open. Read his book, and weep.

I wonder if university and public libraries are doing this too. If they are, it might make the koran harder to find because it's out of order.

Perhaps I'll write Borders and ask for a copy of their specific "Korans on the top" policy. If they reply, follow up with a request for a written copy of their policy towards other religions.

#31 Da Coyote
How about Border's showing some b***s and simply not stocking the dratted Koran. Musnuts can simply get copies from their local militia ...er...Mosque library.

How dare you...

You expect US to kowtow to some small minority and give up our Freedom of Speech by not carrying a book that is in demand by so many of our customers. Just because YOU don't like it is no reason to remove it from our inventory for those that want to find their copy at our stores. Why that would be like giving into the TYRANNY of the MINORITY and that is against the principles of the founding of this country...

/Dingbat logic.

Well, dang, Charles was beating me to the Western Standard story! Next thread!

Unfortunately, the threat is real. Cody's Books here in Berkeley got a pipebomb tossed through the front window in 1989 because the store sold the Rushdie book, Satanic Verses.

[Link: www.lib.berkeley.edu...]

Well, I got a daughter that just started for the brand-new Borders here in town, so I will ask her about the Qur'an shelving matter.

On a probably disagreeable note, I would remind everybody that this is not a First Amendment issue. Borders is a corporation. They can sell or not sell any damned thing they like.

#37 Fjordman

I was just going to reply to your comment with those very words. Han Solo is an under-appreciated commentator on human nature.

28 kateca! you guerilla :-) gosh, until now it never even occurred to me to go into that section...think I'll give it a gander next time I'm out.

If you want to be specific when complaining to Borders, you can mention that The Weekly Standard also published the cartoons on page 8 of the 20 February 2006 issue. I must have missed the announcment that it would not be sold.

For general inquiries contact us at:

Borders Group, Inc.
100 Phoenix Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
734.477.1100

Customer Care
For general questions or comments regarding Borders store experiences, please send email to ccare-at-bordersstores.com.

Questions or comments about a visit to one of our Waldenbooks or Brentano's stores? Email: ccare-at-waldenbooksstores.com.

Mike C.

yes, they can sell what they want

and we can go to other stores to buy our books.

Heh, heh, heh. . . now didn't Fritzie the Talking Camel predict, months ago, that bookstores were going to be the next target in the jihad? Didn't she? The Moonbats sneered, the Gordons claimed it was just a mean ol' "smear"---but turns out she was right. Sometimes it's not much fun, being right. . .

(And having worked in bookstores, excuse me while I make a rude camel-noise at the thought that Borders, and any other booksellers, are seriously worried about the safety and/or wellbeing of their clerks! The managers, executives, Board of Trustees, etc. are worried about themselves, not their lowly employees!)

Top shelf? What the hell, put it in the attic.

“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,”

So why aren't Muslims offended at Border's implication, immediately issuing a statement assuring that there is no cause for fear and demanding that free speech be upheld?

I seem to recall not too long ago a big fuss was raised over the handling of the Koran by our soldiers at Gitmo. We were regaled with stories of soldiers not handling it with both hands, placing it on bottom shelves and exposing it to liquid substances.
All of that to ask this. Do Borders' employees follow the same guidlines? Or do these rules only apply when Newsweek is trying to sell magazines and the Islamofascists are trying to stir up the Muslim street?

Border's is still selling Salman Rushdie's novel (how brave of them), sometimes I relocate a koran next to his book in the fiction section.

if you are a citizen and threaten violence, why are you not in jail?

Excellent question. As soon as some knuckle-dragging Islamist squints in pain at the sight of the Koran on a lower shelf, a clerk should ask if there's a problem. Take complaint, name, and number. If the Islamist threatens anything, call the police.

The war has come to Borders, and Borders is waving the white flag.

# 73

Well, of course you can. That was not my point. But consider the silver lining to this particular cloud. A rather substantial American retail company has just publically stated they fear to carry a product because islamic crazies might endanger their staff, customers and stores. Sorry, but I gotta look at that as a good thing.

I guess if I owned a bookstore and someone made a complaint like that, I would do one of two things:

1. Get rid of all religious texts so as not to favor one over another.

or

2. Get sarcastic and place the Islamic books on the top shelf of a bookshelf so high one could only reach them with a ladder.

Borders. Puke. My money and business will be going elsewhere.

What about booksellers in Israel? Where do they put the Koran? Any Israelies that can answer here today?

Well, this cinches it for me. I've been disappointed with Borders for a while now - no more membership discount cards (like they have @ B & N), no more gift certificates earned for each dollar you spend, & it took them a MONTH to place the newest Star Wars hardcover on their discounted best-seller rack (while B & N always discounts new hardcovers). Plus the Borders Visa card just raised my "fixed" APR. I've got 1 discount coupon & 1 gift certifcate left, but after that, it's bye-bye Borders. And bye-bye to all the smug, multi-pierced, white dredlocked post-docs who think they're doing me a favor by selling $4 lattes. I do of my bookshopping online, anyway.

"Celebrate Banned Books" my ass!

#18 Locutus

I may just have to thumb through a few Korans after I've eaten a nice big bag of porkrinds, some bacon, and a big greasy pork sandwich.

ROFL

AFAIK, the ROP has a requirement that unbelievers never be able to physically look down on the believers. So anytime there is a church with a steeple, and a mosque is built nearby, the mineret of the mosque must be built taller than the steeple.

There is even a tiny mineret on the Mount of Olives, because there is a tiny Christian chapel--not church--there; and so next to it there must be a mineret that is taller.

When the YMCA built a tower in Jerusalem (under the British) the ROP had a fit. I don't know how that was resolved--but I'll assume there is now a taller mineret nearby somewhere.

I didn't know that applied to books, but I guess it does.

If Islam is the "religion of peace," why has Condi's visit to an English mosque been cancelled due to security fears? link

Muslims can't guarantee peace in their own mosques?

I'm shocked, shocked I say.

I noticed in some Barnes and Noble bookstores in NYC that the Koran and Islamic books get places of prominence where everyone can see them...

Coincidence?

#77 Just A Grunt

The rare book seller that I work for just got in some early Koran manuscript leaves (must be a very early draft, it still has the words "calm down" in it ;)). I'm thinking about asking customers to wear white cotton gloves when they handle the leaves, "out of respect for Islam," just to see who goes dhimmi on me. On second thought, I'm not sure I want to know - I like most of our customers.

I fully support putting the Quran on the top shelf - of the "True Crime" section.

If it is any consolation, Louis Borders oversaw the loss of around ONE BILLION dollars during the dotcom boom.

Webvan. 2% gross profit; delivering groceries.

Hahahaha.

since we're talking guerilla ops:

you know how there's the RLE (red-letter edition) of the bible?

howsa 'bout a FMB (fake-menstrual blood) edition of the kkkoran?

So is it wrong of me to keep my Korans on the bottom of the bathroom bookshelf?

Wow. I, too, will have to visit my local Borders and check this out.

It is kind of sad, though...because although I do wish they would grow some cojones...

The threat of being bombed would make any weaker minded individual take pause.

Don't worry about the koran being on the top shelf. I wouldn't even go and buy a book if it's on the same shelf as that satanic manual of evil.

The koran defiles everything it touches. I can prove it to you: just look what evil is being done in the world in the name of the koran and it's god allah or it's prophart muhammad. Any ideology that can cause that much evil cannot be from the GOD OF THE JEWS. This is also the GOD of the CHRISTIANS.

I think the Islamists may also be setting up the bookstores for a series of lawsuits: complaints about clerks mishandling Korans (which, given the complex rules re proper Koran handling, even the most dhimmi-intioned of them can't avoid).

Korans being allegedly defaced, Korans being found with stuff like "ALLAH IS A DOODY-HEAD!" written in them, a Koran found in the Sex-Ed section, a Koran found stuffed into the ladies room toilet---oh, you know the drill!

Sensitive Islamic sensitivities will be offended. The bookstore companies will be apologetic, and grovel, but their groveling will get them nowhere. The big corporations that own most of the bookstore chains will start closing them down, as being money losses and targets for litigation. And nobody will want to work in a bookstore anymore, since if you aren't attacked by an offended Moslem, you know you'll be the blamed and fired---if not sued---for the copy of the Koran that was found at the bottom of the shelf, next to The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis!

The few bookstores left will be sure to carry only those books not offensive to Moslems: i.e., the complete works of Karen Armstrong, Kingdom of Heaven DVD'S, Khomeini's invaluable (sarc.) book about feminine hygien, "Saladin, Noble Warrior of Islam" (a real kid's book), et al.

The big, bright displays of Christmas books, and Easter books you used to see in bookstores around holiday times, will become a thing of the past, as will St. Patrick's day books, Valentine's Day books, the entire romance section and the entire music section, too.

Hey, the only book you need is the Koran!

(Watch for more and lawsuits to be filed against the bookstore chains in the coming months. And this is a serious matter, Chummers! With libraries going moribund, bookstores, where people can sit and talk, and gain new information, are almost as important as the Internet for freedom of speech!)

Hmm... Might have to bring a bunch of these to Borders this weekend.

Publish Your Own Mohammed Cartoons

This is a freedom issue. It goes right to the very reason for the existence of the United States. And if fear is creeping in like this, it shows that to preserve our country and our freedoms, we will have to wipe out islam.

Where's the red button?

But consider the silver lining to this particular cloud. A rather substantial American retail company has just publically stated they fear to carry a product because islamic crazies might endanger their staff, customers and stores. Sorry, but I gotta look at that as a good thing.

In a way, this is true.

I wonder if this is embarrasing (the blatant admission of fear) to a good number of Muslims or if they are getting powertripped over it.

There is one thing this whole religion of pieces has taught me.
1)Convert to Islam
2) Murder anyone I want while proclaiming them a non-believer.
3) If arrested I will invoke my First Amendment rights to practice my religion.
4) The only evidence necessary to prove I was practicing my religion in good faith is a copy of the Koran.
5) Case dismissed because the act is protected by the Constitution and demanded by the Koran.
/taking bets on how long before the ACLU tries this defense maybe with Mohamhead the DC sniper

#99 Snopes

I suspect most Moslems feel power-tripped; if they were capable of embarassment, they'd have succumed to it during the Rushdie Affair, back in the 70's.

Either that, or they're afraid of becoming targets themselves of their easily offended co-religionists.

And the American public, and the American business community, should have learned, then and there, that Islam was ready, willing and able to bully them through threats and violence. They should have learned their lesson back then!

Re: 100 Just_A_Grunt

Case dismissed because the act is protected by the Constitution and demanded by the Koran.
/taking bets on how long before the ACLU tries this defense maybe with Mohamhead the DC sniper

I've been wondering when such a defense would be raised, not necessarily in the Mohammed case, though. The UNC suicide homicide driver would be a "good" one.

And I can see it getting to the Supreme Court. I can guess how Scalia, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas will vote. But he can be consoled that he's sure to have plenty of time to read the Koran.

TO: All
RE: Contacting Borders

You can call Borders, toll free, at 800-566-6616 (Customer Contact Center).

I've been on hold for a while...

Let's run up their phone bill...eh?

Regards,

Chuck(le)

TO: All
RE: Additional Information

Greg Josefowicz
CEO
Borders
100 Phoenix Dr.
Anarbor MI, 48108

Enjoy...

Chuck(le)

well, i broke down & fired off an even-handed (ham-handed?) letter to ccare@bordersstores.com

Sir/madam,

Recently, a story has been circulating that a San Francisco branch of your store has self-censored the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine due to the (supposed) offensive content; specifically, 4 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.

With this, it has also been noted the Koran is to now be shelved above other religious texts, as to not offend Muslim sensitivities (or some such rationale). Should not the "shelving policy" be arbitrary, and not show favoritism?

I am specifically interested in Borders' policy with respect to its position on Freedom of the Press, as well religious favoritism (and reasonably inferred as religious bigotry to those "out of favor").

Please respond quickly & fully, as I have peers awaiting your clarifying of this issue, so that they may make adjustments to their consumer habits.

Very Respectfully,
[me]

TO: All
RE: So Much for Borders

I used to drop about $150 per month at Borders, when I lived in Denver.

Now that I've moved to Pueblo, where there is no such store, I had been pushing the City Fathers to entice Borders to open a store in the historic downtown area. There's a building there that would rival the famous Tattered Cover of Denver.

Not any more...

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Borders has already been notified that they have lost a customer.

That does not necessarily mean they have lost someone to help with "reshelving."

;-)

Wait a second ...

“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,”

So I would have some questions:

1. So according to the above statement, are you saying that your employess and customers have been directly threatened? Have you taken these threats to law enforcement?

2. If no threats have been issued, then is this based on some stereotype image of Islam and a corporate paranoia with no basis in actual fact?

3. Do you carry material that might be considered offensive to people of other religious groups such as opinion cartoons that might make light of religious opinions on political issues? Do you have plans to cease carrying these publications when they have offensive material to other religions as you have not carried material that includes the cartoons depicting Islam in an opinionated way?

4. Is it the policy to stifle all material that expresses opinions that some people might not agree with or are you simply cowtowing to Islam at the moment? Are you willing to withdraw all material that might be considered "button pushing" against fundamentalist Christians, Jews, Israel, the political left, the political right, etc.?

Note that Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) also owns Waldenbooks. At least Amazon still lists religious grouped in alphabetical order.

So are kuffar Borders employees handling the Holy Sacred Perfect Q'u'r'an' in order to place it on the top shelf? With their filthy, infidel hands?!

COMMENCE RIOTING

So are kuffar Borders employees handling the Holy Sacred Perfect Q'u'r'an' in order to place it on the top shelf?

Yeah, and I hear that one of them didn't wash their hands all that well before leaving the restroom too. Imagine ... people TOUCHING those Korans. I suppose they are going to have to shrink-wrap them all now. Is this just Korans or ALL Islamic books? If it is all Islam related books, it would certainly be going too far. I would think the customers themselves could fix things.

For those of you suggesting all kinds of pigfat thing on korans, forget about it. True mooslems don't buy their copies from Borders.

Well it may be a good thing to keep the Koran on the top shelf at all times, since it is generally a wise policy to keep harmful materials out of the reach of children :-)

#111 Napsalot

For those of you suggesting all kinds of pigfat thing on korans, forget about it. True mooslems don't buy their copies from Borders.

True but it would be fun to watch them try to force Borders to hire employees specifically to guard their Pocket Guide to Murder and Mayhem to make sure all of us infidels didn't disturb their material. It might leave Borders with 2 options 1) Quit stocking the terrorist handbook or 2) Hire the Koran Security force and close stores to make up for the expense.

I guess I should have looked up one thread...

I missed this from yesterday and am just now getting in on the action.

I live in the Ann Arbor area and would expect nothing less from a company based here. It's unlikely you will find a more liberal town east of the Missippi. Those of us that live around Ann Arbor call it "Ten square miles surrounded by reality."

gday, eh.

I knew there was something wrong with my last post...Mississippi. Brother, you'd thnk i coulddn't spel.

Condor at Post 85 wrote

"AFAIK, the ROP has a requirement that
unbelievers never be able to physically
look down on the believers. So anytime
there is a church with a steeple, and
a mosque is built nearby, the minaret
of the mosque must be built taller
than the steeple."

Another example: In Muslim countries a Jew could not ride horses because it would put him above a Muslim walking. Jews could not have two-storey houses because when on the upper storey they would be higher than Muslims on the street.

As for the YMCA Tower in Jerusalem, there is no mosque or minaret anywhere near it.
But I am not sure whether or not it is higher than the King David Hotel just opposite to it.

mentioned that Muslims will not permit any building

#80 Mike

A rather substantial American retail company has just publically stated they fear to carry a product because islamic crazies might endanger their staff, customers and stores. Sorry, but I gotta look at that as a good thing.

I agree with you. But I gotta qualify it to say that it is only a good thing if it gets a LOT of publicity.

Quietly kowtowing in fear is no good.

Submitting to threats while making the threats known and known as the reason for submission is good.

Borders has said the words. Those words need to be publicized.

#39 Snopes...I don't know if the policy is in effect now or not, but I do know from working at Borders in the 90's Muslims have been pushing for this for some time(My post from last night on the other thread)
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]

American Infidel
Chicken Kiev

I'm ordering While Europe Slept & Politically Incorrect guide to Islam right now...you both convinced me. Thanks

P.S. From Amazon- duh!

-The Tuna

Drudge is now carrying this story. It will now get even more coverage. Maybe the librarians can include this in their banned book thingie (every year they print a list of most banned books around the country). I know it's a mag, but still.

I sent this link to Drudges tip line, for what it's worth

I got a nice cheap $5 copy of the Koran at Borders. It was not on the bottom, at least toward the top...

I love reading it, it's quite "incredible"
"fantastic" even
I need to have my own copy because I wanted to mark it up, underlining important passages, making notes on the margins, things like: "omg!" "wtf?" "BS!" etc

I'll make a point of slipping an Oriana Fallaci, Ibn Warraq, Irshad Manji or Robert Spencer book in with the Korans next time I'm in Borders...

...If I can find one in the store.

How DARE these booksellers act preemptively against Islamic terror!

It's racist!

Our local library has "While Europe Slept" on order.

My local library has "While Europe Slept" in stock already - except every copy at every branch is either checked out or on hold.

The library in the next county has it on order.

I guess I'd better get in line.

Neither library has the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam," though. Pity, that.

Not that this wasn't predictable.

[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]

#127 z9z99 LOL!

Field report!

I checked out a fairly large Borders in downtown Washington, DC (14th & H st., NW).

At least at this location, the story for this thread does not pan out. The religion section is divided so that each major religion has its own sub-section, i.e. all the books facing you floor-to-ceiling in the Judaism section are on that religion, etc. Same is true of the Islam section. Within the Islam section, I noted one Koran on the top shelf, surrounded by other books about Islam; another two at an eye-level shelf, along with "Islam for Dummies", among others.

My two cents.

85! 116!

" the ROP has a requirement that
unbelievers never be able to physically
look down on the believers. So anytime
there is a church with a steeple, and
a mosque is built nearby, the minaret
of the mosque must be built taller
than the steeple."

Space Shuttle!

American Flag on the rudder!

Yee-Ha ! ! !

And fly it during ramadan!

And as a Borders employee, you should be able to comment on earlier reports that Border's employees reqularly hid/destroyed/discarded books contrary to their agenda during the last election cycle, such as the Swift Boat vets books. Personally, I don't think the nose-ringed spike-haired freaks at my local Borders even know how to read.

#129 Let me get this straight -- there was a Koran and an Islam for Dummies book?

There are just too many jokes that can be made here.

#129 OR: is Siddhartha (bookstore?) still at 14/Kst?

Contact information for Borders:

Customer Care
For general questions or comments regarding Borders store experiences, please send email to ccare@bordersstores.com.

Questions or comments about a visit to one of our Waldenbooks or Brentano's stores? Email: ccare@waldenbooksstores.com.

If you prefer to talk to us by phone, please call our customer service center at 888.81.BOOKS. Hours of operation are 7:00 AM—9:00 PM CT (Central Time) Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM—7:00 PM on Saturday and 10:00 AM—7:00 PM CT on Sunday.

Additionally, here's a copy of the email I just sent to them if anyone cares to emulate:

To Whom It May Concern,

Your recently publicized decision to ban the sales of publications containing the controversial cartoons of Mohammed, has disgusted and outraged me. While I am now a regular customer of Borders, buying between 4-5 books per month, minimum in your store, I will now move my shopping online with Amazon, or go back to local bookstores that have the spine to stand up for free speech. The cornerstone principle of every bookstore in America is free speech, and you have just pulled that cornerstone from your foundation. You are surely contributing to the demise of free speech in America, and for that, you should, and will, be punished by consumers.

Additionally, though unconfirmed, I have heard reports on the web that you have a policy that does not allow Korans to be placed on any shelf in your stores except the top shelf. If confirmed, this is another hideous example of giving in to threats of violence and pressure from radical Muslims who wish to restrict the free exchange of ideas in OUR country. Companies like you are now directly contributing to the demise of the free flow of information, opinion and ideas in our nation.

I and everyone I know and can reach via email, are beginning a nationwide boycott of your stores. We will push for further press coverage, protests, and an absolute boycott of all your brands.

I sincerely hope you will reconsider, and will support the fundamental rights of United States citizens to a free and robust exchange of ideas in print.

Sincerely,

Borders are such hypocritical assholes:

About eight years ago, the local Borders had a huge display table for "The Turner Diaries," a famous anti-Semitic pornographic tract containing recipes for making bombs.

I complained to the manager and to corporate headquarters -- and they RAGED at me. I was threatening their freedom of speech!

Then came the Oklahoma City horror, caused by a diesel fuel bomb, the kind detailed in "The Turner Diaries."

Why are they still in business?

Everyone, go to your local Borders and put the Koran down flat under the Federalist Papers and the Bible.

TO: All
RE: Top Shelf Stuff

I'm wondering if the Satanists will threaten to make human sacrifices of Borders employees if they don't get THEIR book on the top shelf too.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

#133 eLoser:

is Siddhartha (bookstore?) still at 14/Kst?

If it is, I've never noticed it.

#135 mardukhai:

About eight years ago, the local Borders had a huge display table for "The Turner Diaries," a famous anti-Semitic pornographic tract containing recipes for making bombs.

I have trouble believing this was anything other than a local manager's decision. The Turner Diaries is quite notorious, and at the same time is hardly a top-seller. Hard to believe that any sort of Borders corporate decision would be made to give it prominent display.

Lurking faith #126,

If they don't have it, then make sure they get a copy. I've placed many books on Islam into several libraries, either by filling out request forms or actually buying and giving them the copies. When I began, a little while after 9/11, there was a real dearth. Among the first ones I started placing were of Bat Ye'or. Libraries have very tight budgets. The books they like, and that they are open to buying are the ones they know are worthy of keeping on their shelves, that will circulate. Unlike bookstores, I've not seen too much stultifying political correctness, at least in the libraries I frequent. I've even seen the book "Prophet of Doom" set up on an end display once. Talk about nerve, as there is a Muslim population here. In comparing that to Borders, where I had an experience about 3 years ago, when the store obviously refused to place it on their shelves when it first came out, and was selling well, at least online. Only through Borders/Amazon could I order it.

This is everybody's fight and even one individual can make a hell of a difference. Every time I speak out about Islam, even if its just a casual comment (truth, particularly as word of mouth, can go pretty far when its being so rigidly suppressed) and hand someone I've never met before a list of books or websites, I know I've started another little ripple that will fan out.

#137 Occasional Reader

I have trouble believing this was anything other than a local manager's decision. The Turner Diaries is quite notorious, and at the same time is hardly a top-seller. Hard to believe that any sort of Borders corporate decision would be made to give it prominent display.

The prominent display was the Mission Viejo store manager's decision, but corporate backed him up.

And it was a corporate decision to carry that miserable smut in the first place.

I have an idea -- Let's go to the sidewalk in front of a Borders and burn pages of a Koran until the store alphabetizes it properly.

#134 On The Mark:

if you're taking your business to Amazon, you're not really hurting Borders, as they're beddin' down together.

#64

Calm down.

You are evidently a Musnut. There are Muslems and there are Musnut. Your are evidently the former. Too bad. Please go to the middle east and re establish your 5th century life. Watch out for pigs.

Peace.

And may the flies of a thousand camels come to rest in your beer.

Get a life.

I can only imagine what would be said if a Jew demanded that the Torah be placed on the top shelf.

The Muslims would no doubt proclaim that it was yet another Jewish conspiracy.

My goof on reply 142. I did NOT mean to insult a Muslem. I did mean to insult Musnuts. There is a clear difference. The Muslems are welcome in my home at any time. The Musnuts are not.

Leave it to me to screw up the reply. Oh well, such is life.

Go to your local Borders. Take a book from from the Islamic section. "Relocate" it in the Gay Literature section. Repeat until bored.

If you want to tell NYU just how disgusted you are with them for caving in to Muslim pressure at the free speech discussion last night, LGF contributor Amit Ghate has a good example of just how to do it.

. . . Actually, one of the few funny bits about this whole thing is the fact that Fi Magazine, which claims to be a magazine of secular liberalism, looks like exactly the sort of LLL publication which longs to be thought of as tolerant, caring and compassionate! The mag in question looks as if it has an anti-C.S. Lewis article (by Christopher Hitchens, no less), an article by creepy Peter Singer---it's obviously liberal, tolerant, secular humanist to the core, and Islam's going after it! And Borders Books is seconding the motion!

How it must gall them, to be treated as if they're just a bunch of intolerant, ZionaziCrusadersredneckevangelicals, who live in trailers and vote Republican!

There has to be a way for this to get more public attention. I am ignorant in that way.
This is the perfect example of appeasement that warrants a nation wide boycott. If Borders cares about it's total customer base, it will have to reject any kind of policy that restricts free speech or caters to some pandering about what book is on the top shelf.
Further more, if their bottom line doesn't concern them more than appeasement then let go out of business.

So many of us all immediately having the same thoughts...I guess great minds DO occasionally think alike.

Re-arranging korans...oh, the possibilities.

Behind the porno rags...would Achmed admit he had been leafing through to find it?

Amongst the dog fancier tomes...oh, the humanity!

Upside-down...could Ali baba even tell? Can he read?

Beneath the Jewish literature...bwahahaha!

Ooopsie! Did I do that?

Koran (a translation)...$13.99
Disney Piglet bookmark...Priceless

I think it is time to do a little rearanging, by accident of course :).

#151 mattm

Heh, heh, heh. . it's certainly fun to think about, but, remember, any "rearanging", if it's discovered, will be blamed on the salesclerks; they'll be the ones fired, sued or even attacked by peaceable Moslems offended by this attack against their peaceable religion. And, of course, the bookstore company itself will simply apologize, and then hush the whole thing up.

I believe that we can have an open mind and support Borders for their efforts. Think of the lawsuites they are avoiding from having thier stores bombed or worse, employees killed. I think they are on to something here. Please, can anyone tell me where to send my list of what I consider poor taste or offensive books and magazines. I could not find a email address for this at their website. Wow, I cannot believe that a company finally giving in to supposedly potential threats of violence.
Oh, Does anyone if I need to have a plan of violence made out before I summit my list or can I just say that it will follow later? This is better than owning stock. What control.