OUR LIBRARY CAVED IN

Submitted by Anne (United States), Feb 10, 2014 at 14:00

I work at a university library in Boston, Mass., and books are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal System, not by title or "importance". Muslim students (most of them from abroad) told administrators that they were offended because the Koran wasn't given a place of honor on a top shelf, as dictated by Islamic law and custom.

Library staff were then ordered to shift entire sections of books in the stacks so that the Koran could be "honored" appropriately.

This is absurd; we do not live in a Muslim country, nor is ours a religious school. We treat the Koran, the Bible, Hindu texts, Buddhist texts, etc. with the same respect we show to all our books, yet Muslim students miss the point. Non-Muslims are expected to follow local custom when visiting Muslim countries, which is fine, yet many Muslims insist that their ways be followed in non-Muslim countries too.

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