The Australian, “Islamic fears kill off children’s thriller”:
A LEADING children’s publisher has dumped a novel because of political sensitivity over Islamic issues.
Scholastic Australia pulled the plug on the Army of the Pure after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock the adventure thriller for younger readers because the “baddie” was a Muslim terrorist. [. . . ]
This decision is at odds with the recent publication of Richard Flanagan’s bestselling The Unknown Terrorist and Andrew McGahan’s Underground in which terrorists are portrayed as victims driven to extreme acts by the failings of the West. [. . . ]
Scholastic described his writing as “almost flawless” and the story about four children chased by Afghan terrorists after discovering a plot to blow up Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor a “gripping page-turner”.
How unbelievably gutless. The booksellers didn’t even receive any threats. And also, how out of touch with reality: ignoring the vital fact that Australia is and has been a target of Islamic terrorists, and that the plot described in the novel was based on real life plans. It is censorship out of pure fear, of something unobjectionable, with artistic merit, and based on reality.
I only fear for the future of Western civilization when I realise how cowardly the so-called civilised are…
[...] A third example that should be added to this comparison is Scholastic Australia’s decision not to publish Army of the Pure, a children’s thriller about Afghan terrorists plotting to blow up Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. (Hat Tip: Pacific Empire) Scholastic’s general manager, publishing, Andrew Berkhut, said the company had canvassed “a broad range of booksellers and library suppliers”, who expressed concern that the book featured a Muslim terrorist. [...]
Left by Section 14 » Blog Archive » Self-censorship: Good taste vs fear on November 27th, 2006