Even in houses of worship, libraries are meant to expand knowledge, not limit it.

By Ben Daniel

On January 28th, Freedom House, an organization that monitors human rights and promotes democracy and American-style freedoms worldwide released a report entitled “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fills American Mosques.” The report details the presence of Saudi-funded tracts that advocate a strict Wahabi Islam and denounce all things Western, with particularly strong condemnations of Christians, Jews, moderate Muslims, and women who dare to consider themselves human.

It is clear from reading the report that Freedom House sees the content of libraries in American mosques as a potential battleground in the war on terror. It is noted that several of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis with ties to mosques in which the offending publications were found. In the final paragraph of the report’s introduction, James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA who is now the Chair of Freedom House’s board of directors, makes the following statement about the report’s goal:

“This report is a first step in an effort to contain the destructive ideology being proliferated by [Muslim extremists]

within the American homeland. Hopefully it will lead to the removal of tracts spreading hatred within American mosques, libraries and Islamic centers. The publications analyzed in this Report and others like them that advocate an ideology of hatred have no place in a nation founded on religious freedom and toleration.”

As the spiritual leader of a religious institution I am troubled by the report. I doubt that anything good can come of removing materials of any kind from libraries of any kind, and I am especially troubled when libraries in houses of worship and religious institutions are targeted for censorship.

It simply cannot be assumed that a mosque the library of which has objectionable reading materials will become a cauldron of terror. That’s not how libraries work. The presence of evangelical publications in the library of my church does not make me an evangelical. In fact, I would hate for my Christianity to be judged by the contents of my church’s library. We have books that call homosexuality an abomination and abortion murder. We have a series of popular novels that forecast Jesus’ return as a day when the Temple will be reestablished in Jerusalem and there will be a mass conversion of Jews. One book even claims that the drip paintings of Jackson Pollack and the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg are evidence of our society’s perverse godlessness. I don’t believe any of those things, nor do most of the people in my congregation, but the books remain on the shelves because even in houses of worship, libraries are meant to expand knowledge, not limit it.

By advocating the removal of offensive materials from mosque libraries, Freedom House is giving in to the fear that the purveyors of such hatred may actually have ideas that will stand the test of time—seductive ideas that must be erased before they deflower the innocence of the uninformed, making terrorists of otherwise healthy and balanced Muslims. And so the war on terror contemplates an assault upon mosque libraries.

It’s a bad idea. To defend America’s freedom of religion and to promote tolerance by censoring the libraries in houses of worship is to create a situation the irony of which certainly won’t be missed by America’s detractors abroad. And it should not be tolerated by Americas defenders at home.

A graduate of Westmont College and Princeton Theological Seminary, Ben Daniel is the pastor of Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California. His writing has appeared in many local, regional and national publications. His last contribution to The Revealer was “A Misunderstanding Between Friends.”

Even in houses of worship, libraries are meant to expand knowledge, not limit it.