Radical books in London libraries
by Richard Watson from BBC Newsnight
Douglas Murray, author of the report by the right-leaning think tank, Centre for Social Cohesion, told BBC2 Newsnight, "This is a collection that is warped towards one particular extreme interpretation of Islam." The Tower Hamlets collections also include multiple works by the founders of modern political Islam, Sayed Qutb and Syed Maududi, and a large number of texts from Saudi scholars, promoting the Wahhabi fundamentalist school of thought. These, the report says, refer to "incredible hatred of women, incredible hatred of non-Muslims... and of Muslims who are not part of the Wahhabi tradition" ... Most controversially, several books written by two of Britain's most notorious terrorist sympathisers were found in public libraries. Two books by Abu Hamza, who used to preach at Finsbury Park mosque, are in the collection, as is one book by Sheikh Faisal, whose lectures inspired two of the London bombers ... Tower Hamlets Council said their Islamic collections had been imbalanced, but they were improving.