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