I don't know if - or when - Professor John L. Esposito's What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam (New York, Oxford University Press, 2002) has officially been deleted from the list of banned books in Malaysia but I did buy a hardcover copy openly for reference and research at RM34.90 at Kinokuniya in KLCC yesterday. Nowadays, it is indeed difficult to get hardcover scholarly books imported from the US at such an affordable price.John Esposito's Islam book back for sale in KL
New books on American IR in personal library
Peter Mansfield's A History of the Middle East
posted by James Wong Wing-On at 9:46 PM
2 Comments:
Hi James,
Late last year, there was heavy criticism on the Internet about government restrictions on many book titles, which the mainstream press picked up and questioned a Deputy Minister about it. I'm glad somebody appears to have listened.
It seems that a number of books which were previously restricted - not officially on the banned list but Kastam were not allowing them to be imported - are coming in again. I managed to buy a copy of a previously unavailable book last week.
The officially banned books are still banned, but at least some of the more illogical restrictions have now been lifted.
I guess we have to be thankful for a little bit of progress...sigh..
May be English section of the Censorship Panel should be privatised to a company (To Ban or Not To Ban Sdn. Bhd) set up by you and me. after all, despite some of our differences of opinion, we are socially responsible guys :)
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