No Borders Books in April

Being married to a former librarian, I've been long trained in the extreme importance of freedom of speech. Nothing riles up a librarian like someone trying to ban a book. For example, see this Borders Books ad from this week in defense of banned books and authors. Hence my huge surprise at how quickly and easily enemies in the war on terrorism have convinced so many here and abroad, aparently now also including Borders Books, that freedom of speech cannot be defended if it offends current or potential enemies in that war.

The latest collapsing battlefront in that war is Borders Books, which is choosing not to carry Free Inquiry (one of their usual April-May magazines) for fear of what might happen when it becomes known that the issue contains 4 Danish cartoons.
"Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.
“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,” Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday."

Cox & Forkum respond with another cartoon.

But it gets worse. LittleGreenFootballs reports tonight that a Borders employee has been told it is official corporate policy that the Quran must be displayed only on the top shelf of book racks, rather than wherever it happens to fall in alphabetical listings.
"I was shifting rows of books in our religion section and it happened to be that all of our Koran books (a section on its own) ended up on the bottom shelf. The next day I was informed by my General Manager that it is Borders policy as a whole (not my particular store) that due to complaints in the past from Muslim customers, we are not allowed to put our copies of the Koran on any shelf other than the top."

One useful suggestion is that whatever money we might otherwise have spent at Borders during April might now be better spent elsewhere. And one excellent choice for where else might be as a donation to those who have defended freedom of speech and are now facing unfair consequences as a result. The Alberta Human Rights Commission, for example, has inexplicably filed suit against the Western Standard for publishing the Danish cartoons. (Details on contributing to the Western Standard defense fund are here.)

I particularly loved PowerLine reader David Bosserman's plan:
"I’ve sent the following to our friends at the Western Standard, with a copy to Borders, and I encourage your readers to do the same: "Sirs: I am sending you the money I might otherwise have spent at Borders Books, because they are cowards and you are not.""

Update: Instapundit reports the Hartford Courant is on this too:
"If you care about freedom of expression, don't buy books from Borders or Waldenbooks," writes conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan on his blog. "And if you want to draw a lesson from the entire episode, it's obvious: violence against free writers and artists gets results. We have all but invited more."
(It's nice to be able to agree with Andrew Sullivan about something again.)