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"Secret books of hate on sale
July 18, 2005 x
BOOKS endorsed by Osama bin Laden and discussing the effectiveness of suicide bombings are on sale in Australian bookstores - and authorities say they are powerless to act.
While a Muslim community leader today called for the books to be confiscated, the New South Wales Government said it was unable to enforce a ban.
An investigation by Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph found the Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba, in Sydney's southwest, carried a book titled Defence of the Muslim Lands, which has an endorsement from Osama bin Laden on the cover.
The book, by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, discusses the effectiveness of suicide bombings.
"The form this usually takes nowadays is to wire up one's body, or a vehicle or a suitcase with explosives, and then to enter a conglomeration of the enemy and to detonate," the writer states.
Another book by Azzam, Join the Caravan, carries similar themes.
In Auburn, also in Sydney's west, other distressing books were found at the IDCA bookstore and the Islamic Science, Culture and Art Association.
Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad said he was concerned the books were being sold and feared they were damaging Australians' understanding of Islamic communities.
"For the last several years I've been focusing my efforts on promoting understanding, building bridges and it just takes irresponsible people importing this type of literature and just undermining all the good work that we do," he said on the John Laws radio show.
"This type of literature should really be only there for academic research so we can understand the minds of people who get into this type of militancy so we can counter the militant ideology.
"But they shouldn't be freely available to ordinary people that may be swayed."
Mr Trad said if bookstore owners failed to get rid of the offensive books there was little choice but to send authorities in to confiscate them.
"If they're not wise enough to go through all the material they have on the shelves and assess it and burn the nasties ... if they're not willing to do that then we'll have no option but authorities will have to confiscate such books because it's not acceptable any more with what's happening the world," he said.
"There are people out there who take this message far too seriously and we don't want any literature that can cause violence.
"We would love to remove such literature and make sure it doesn't get into the hands of young people." However, the State Government said NSW law enforcement agencies could not take action against people selling books endorsed by bin Laden because they did not appear to have broken any law.
A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus today said the content of the books did not appear to constitute incitement to violence. "For incitement to occur, violence has to actually take place (as a result of publishing the material)," the spokesman said.
"If the literature is found to contain racial vilification then the laws are there to prosecute.
"If any information or literature results in a violent act that can be proven, then we have laws to prosecute under incitement to violence.
"We take any breach of the law extremely seriously and the threat of terrorism extremely seriously."
People could be prosecuted for racial vilification if a complaint were made against them and the Anti-Discrimination Board recommended pursuing legal action, he said.
But the NSW Government could not ban the books outright, he said.
"Banning that sort of stuff is a federal matter that comes under the classification of material through the Office of Film and Literature Classification," the spokesman said.
The NSW Government could only act against the bookshop or its owners if they had broken the law – and until then, any investigation into the sale of the books was a matter for Australia's intelligence agencies.
Unlike Victoria, NSW does not have religious vilification laws and Premier Bob Carr ruled out introducing them earlier this month.
A spokesman for The Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba today would not to comment on the News Ltd reports it was selling books attacking Western culture and discussing the effectiveness of martyrdom and suicide bombing.
Asked whether the shop intended to continue selling the material, the spokesman said: "We're not talking to any media ... we hope to put out a press release early tomorrow." "
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15965577-2,00.html
July 18, 2005 x
BOOKS endorsed by Osama bin Laden and discussing the effectiveness of suicide bombings are on sale in Australian bookstores - and authorities say they are powerless to act.
While a Muslim community leader today called for the books to be confiscated, the New South Wales Government said it was unable to enforce a ban.
An investigation by Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph found the Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba, in Sydney's southwest, carried a book titled Defence of the Muslim Lands, which has an endorsement from Osama bin Laden on the cover.
The book, by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, discusses the effectiveness of suicide bombings.
"The form this usually takes nowadays is to wire up one's body, or a vehicle or a suitcase with explosives, and then to enter a conglomeration of the enemy and to detonate," the writer states.
Another book by Azzam, Join the Caravan, carries similar themes.
In Auburn, also in Sydney's west, other distressing books were found at the IDCA bookstore and the Islamic Science, Culture and Art Association.
Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad said he was concerned the books were being sold and feared they were damaging Australians' understanding of Islamic communities.
"For the last several years I've been focusing my efforts on promoting understanding, building bridges and it just takes irresponsible people importing this type of literature and just undermining all the good work that we do," he said on the John Laws radio show.
"This type of literature should really be only there for academic research so we can understand the minds of people who get into this type of militancy so we can counter the militant ideology.
"But they shouldn't be freely available to ordinary people that may be swayed."
Mr Trad said if bookstore owners failed to get rid of the offensive books there was little choice but to send authorities in to confiscate them.
"If they're not wise enough to go through all the material they have on the shelves and assess it and burn the nasties ... if they're not willing to do that then we'll have no option but authorities will have to confiscate such books because it's not acceptable any more with what's happening the world," he said.
"There are people out there who take this message far too seriously and we don't want any literature that can cause violence.
"We would love to remove such literature and make sure it doesn't get into the hands of young people." However, the State Government said NSW law enforcement agencies could not take action against people selling books endorsed by bin Laden because they did not appear to have broken any law.
A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus today said the content of the books did not appear to constitute incitement to violence. "For incitement to occur, violence has to actually take place (as a result of publishing the material)," the spokesman said.
"If the literature is found to contain racial vilification then the laws are there to prosecute.
"If any information or literature results in a violent act that can be proven, then we have laws to prosecute under incitement to violence.
"We take any breach of the law extremely seriously and the threat of terrorism extremely seriously."
People could be prosecuted for racial vilification if a complaint were made against them and the Anti-Discrimination Board recommended pursuing legal action, he said.
But the NSW Government could not ban the books outright, he said.
"Banning that sort of stuff is a federal matter that comes under the classification of material through the Office of Film and Literature Classification," the spokesman said.
The NSW Government could only act against the bookshop or its owners if they had broken the law – and until then, any investigation into the sale of the books was a matter for Australia's intelligence agencies.
Unlike Victoria, NSW does not have religious vilification laws and Premier Bob Carr ruled out introducing them earlier this month.
A spokesman for The Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba today would not to comment on the News Ltd reports it was selling books attacking Western culture and discussing the effectiveness of martyrdom and suicide bombing.
Asked whether the shop intended to continue selling the material, the spokesman said: "We're not talking to any media ... we hope to put out a press release early tomorrow." "
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15965577-2,00.html
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