Australian University Library Seeks Exemption From Ban on Books Said to Inspire Terrorism

["Hamaker, Charles" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Australian University Library Seeks Exemption From Ban on Books 
Said to Inspire Terrorism

By DAVID COHEN
Chronicle.com
Monday, October 2, 2006

The head of a leading Australian university has called on the 
country's government to withdraw a controversial decision to ban 
two books at his institution's library.

The two books, Defence of the Muslim Lands and Join the Caravan, 
were both written by Abdullah Azzam, an Islamic militant and 
onetime lecturer at Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz University who 
was assassinated in 1989. Last year the library at the University 
of Melbourne purchased the books, which have been used by 
scholars of terrorism.

The university pulled the books from the stacks after they were 
banned in twin rulings last July by Australia's Classification 
Review Board.

In one ruling, the board said that Defence of Muslim Lands, a 
114-page work that was first published in English in 1995, 
"promotes and incites in matters of crime or violence, 
specifically terrorist acts and martyrdom operations."


NB: The only copies on OCLC cataloged by U.S. libraries of Join 
the Caravan in English are Harvard (a print copy), LC (an 
internet copy no longer available) and Air University Library 
(cataloging an internet copy still available). UK libraries 
holding the print are Oxford, Cambridge and BL.

A copy in the US of Defence of Muslim Lands in English is 
available through Air University Library (cataloging an internet 
copy). No english print copy is cataloged on OCLC.

Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223