Virgin Megastore in Qatar ‘Recommends’…‘Mein Kampf’ — Then Pulls Book After Complaints
- Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:16am by
Sharona Schwartz
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A Virgin Megastores outlet in Qatar removed Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract Mein Kampf from its recommended reading display after facing a backlash of complaints and negative social media comments.
Arabian Business reports:
The retailer was blasted after a Twitter user posted a picture on the social network of the book in the store’s branch in Landmark Shopping Centre in Qatar.
“Mein Kampf’s next stop: Oprah’s Book Club,” said US executive Charles Gandelman. “I have seen it being sold in places everywhere, and that’s not objectionable,” he said later. “But I thought it was quite shocking to see Adolf Hitler’s manifesto promoted in a British branded store like this.
The UAE based website The National received a statement from the company which tried to distance itself from its local staff:
“Each Virgin Megastore in the Middle East is responsible for the merchandising of products within its respective store and is not merchandised via a planogram from headquarters.
“Recently, one of the region’s Virgin Megastores included in its book section the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, a title available worldwide in major bookstores and online.
“For one day, the book was included in the recommended section. The recommended tag was not an endorsement of the book’s author or its content. In response to a customer, we removed the title from the display. Commentary in the public domain was also taken seriously by Virgin Megastore and our policy is always to listen and respond immediately.”
A pro-Israel blogger has been following the incident and provides examples that this was not an isolated case. He found this blog post from November 1st written by an expat living in Bahrain who saw it on Virgin’s recommended shelf in Bahrain too:
While I don’t believe in banning the book, it has its place as a ‘warning from history’ for scholars and historians, it certainly should not be produced as cheap paperback racist porn to fuel hatred while lining pockets. To see it on the shelves of the Virgin Megastore in Bahrain’s City Centre as recommended reading’ is a shocker, I wonder what the politically correct global minded Richard Branson would have to say about it?
Arabian Business points out Virgin Megastores were sold in 2001 and are no longer part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Additionally, its stores in the Middle East are operated by Beirut’s Azadea Group.
The Mein Kampf displays reflect a troubling fascination in the Arab world with deeply bigoted, classical anti-Semitic texts. This reporter has personally seen the anti-Semitic, fraudulent text Protocols of the Elders of Zion for sale and prominently displayed at a luxury hotel’s bookstore in Amman, Jordan. The 1903 Russian book, which inspired Adolf Hitler’s plan for exterminating European Jews, presented fiction as fact, describing a Jewish grand scheme for achieving world domination.
The Protocols are frequently cited by Arab opinion-makers presenting paranoid, conspiratorial ideas about alleged Israeli policies aimed at mind-control and manipulation of the Arab masses.
Last month, MEMRI reported:
Lebanese columnist Bushra Gharz Al-Din wrote in the daily Al-Diyar that the revolutions of the Arab Spring are part of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, as described in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
An excerpt from the Lebanese column:
“About 100 years ago, 300 of the most arrogant elders of Zion convened. [They were] members of 50 Jewish groups who held secret meetings at which they plotted how to enslave the world. Some [of our readers] may be thinking that these are events of the ancient past that are no longer important and should not be remembered or raked up again. But what would [these readers say] if they knew that what was decided 100 years ago is being implemented today, down to the last detail? Yes, that is the bitter truth. These are The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
It also stated:
“Yes, that is their hidden goal. They want to rule the world, but in a different way, and that is why they have been persisting in their plan for 100 years. All their previous plans have been successfully executed, and the Arab peoples are their greatest victims, for between the [two] jaws – of the dictatorships and the Protocols – there hides the Arab citizen, yearning for freedom, democracy and justice…
“[They instigated] revolution after revolution, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria, and what is yet to come will be even worse. Governments are collapsing, tyrants are falling, and countries are being destroyed, incinerated in the furnace of anarchy and devastation.
“Yes, the Arab governments have fallen, the clerics have lost their status, anarchy and division are rampant throughout the Arab world, economic troubles are gnawing at the societies, and the peoples are being killed and suffering poverty and disease.
“After all this, the only question left to ask is: How long will we continue to let them toy with us, like puppets on hidden strings?”
That Arab columnists perpetuate this objectionable ideology is troubling, but perhaps even more so is the fact that until an American traveler pointed out Virgin’s Mein Kampf promotion, the Western franchise was all too happy to feed the region’s delusional and dangerous tastes and make a quick buck.
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LibsFIB
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 1:08pmThese third world countries barbaric deeds will be their undoing. I wish I was a member of their peaceful religion. Allah loves the killing of innocents and he finds it very appealing!
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:31pmsirhan says “hitler was a Christian”
Heart it says
Report Post »“islam is a peacful religion, NOT”
“Egypt is a democracy now, NOT”
“muhammad was a prophet NOT”
“sirhan is a liar”
do you have “proof” hitler was a Christian?
Does meinkampf teach christianity?
Did the “christian country” of America (this is sirhans terminology) join forces with Hitler during WWII?
boyee, ya better start qouting your sacred text of the antichrist again………
SurhanSurhan
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:04am@ HEARTITORLEAVEIT- Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: “. . . I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:56amhitler wrote a lots of things, the antichrist wrote some stuff (muhammad). sirhan quoted some stuff too! If the “Christian country” (sirhans terminology) of America was on hitlers side and the muzlims were so dead set agains hitler like sirhan here, why didnt the towelheads help destroy hitler in WWII? Oh yeah I think that was the americans wasnt it?
PROOF ISLAM IS THE RELIGION OF THE ANTICHRIST-
Some doofus named ‘Yusuf Ali’ added the word ‘Abraham’ to the quran translations quran 29:27 of to make it read: “We gave (Abraham) Isaac and Jacob, and ordained among his progeny Prophethood and Revelation.” FACT!
This really twists alot of turbins up in a wad that he would fudge this whole thing up like that!
By adding Abraham, it is possible to include Muhammad in the prophetic line!FACT! (this however debunks the ENTIRE religion of izlam!)
OUCH!
The reason is simple: Abraham is not found in the Arabic text of the Qur’an which all the came/jockeys consider to be perfectly correct and the word of God!
Muhammad came from Ishmael, FACT!
Heirs to the Jewish throne came from Isaac. FACT !
The TORAH states, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac,” (Genesis 17:21)FACT!
Later, God repeats the same message, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” (Genesis 21:12)FACT!
They defend this abomination called the quran by quoting it!
PROOF THAT ISLAM IS THE RELIGION OF THE ANTICHRIST!
spare us sirhan, your an idi
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 12:04pmWhen hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: “. . . I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.rote ”
he sounded just like a good moozlim just like the antichrist and sirhan
hows the weather in egypt today sirhan?
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 1:00pmsirhan has more writings from the antichrist…. how informative :[
Report Post »American Destiny
Posted on December 9, 2011 at 4:48pmexcellent questions and answers heartitorleaveit.
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:01pmsirhan- You state
“Mein Kempf was written by Hitler and Hitler was a Christian. Christians do not want the Muslim community to know how they slaughtered 6 million Jews.”
This sounds like somthing the antichrist might say!
You challenged me to prove that islam is the antichrist’s religion and I have provided proof. You then stop responding to me and go elswhere spouting your puss all over this site. Ill try again…
Report Post »sirhan- YOU STATED THAT THE ARABIC VERSION OF THE QURAN WAS THE PERFECT WORD OF GOD AND HAS REMAINED “UNALTERED” but there’s just one problem:
Some doofus named ‘Yusuf Ali’ added the word ‘Abraham’ to your quran translations to make it read: “We gave (Abraham) Isaac and Jacob, and ordained among his progeny Prophethood and Revelation.” FACT! Ill bet this really gets ur turbin in a bunch that he would fudge this whole thing up like that!
By adding Abraham, it is possible to include Muhammad in the prophetic line!FACT! (this however debunks YOUR entire religion!)
OUCH!
However, Abraham is not found in the Arabic text of the Qur’an which YOU consider to be perfectly correct!
Muhammad came from Ishmael, FACT!
Heirs to the Jewish throne came from Isaac. FACT !
The Torah states, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac,” (Genesis 17:21)FACT! Later, God repeats the same message, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” (Genesis 21:12)FACT!
You defend this abomination called the quran by quoting it!
heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:15pmPS. sirhan, this is why everything you say is backwards just like a good rep of the antichrist would do! everybody christians also consider hitler as an incarnation of the antichrist AND that you are an idiot. heck its been prooven. How can muhamma be a the prophet you propose if he is not one of Gods chosen?
Did muhammad have sex with little girls? hmmmmm
(please refrain from using your left hand when typing ok? sirhan- can you send us a pic? we would all like to order some toilet paper with your and that muhammad dudes image on it! :]
whats up with all those accidental explotions in Iran anyway?
Egypt is sure gonna have more freedoms for there women n stuff now huh?
:]
Report Post »SurhanSurhan
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:16am@ HEARTITORLEAVEIT-Christians constituted a wellspring of support for Hitler. Steve Allen notes that Nazi Germany in the 1930s “was the most church-affiliated nation in Europe. The German people were almost entirely Catholic and Lutheran. Despite such factors they launched the Holocaust and World War II.“ Charles Kimball likewise says the Holocaust ”would not have happened without the active participation of, sympathetic support of, and relative indifference exhibited by large numbers of Christians.”
Also in pre-World War II Germany, corporal punishment was used in the schools and schoolchildren were required to start their days with prayer. Today’s advocates of spanking and school prayer should consider that those practices, although supported by religion, proved ineffective in promoting high ethical standards and good behavior among German youth.
Further, Nazi Germany’s soldiers wore belt buckles inscribed “Gott mit uns” (“God is with us”). This slogan sounds eerily similar to Ohio’s present motto, “With God, all things are possible.”
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 12:02pmpost WWII Americans defeated hitler and the moozies still living in the dark…. its history and stuff….
Report Post »weconvene
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:29pmDo guns kill people? No! People kill people with guns! The same with books! Know thine enemies! Evil books do not creat evil people, although to fill our minds with evil by reading evil things we can corrupt our minds without educated perspective based on moral principals. If I have the intent to understand the evil, I want to have the choice to read it! The intent of its reader determines the take on it! The free agency to read it trumps the fear of corruption!
Report Post »dudeman4
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 6:32pmPromoting it by itself is bad. Promoting something with a title like “Fallacies of National Socialism” is good, especially for the bookstore, because they can sell two books instead of one.
Report Post »HuskerDave
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 1:26pmUnfortunately, most of the Arab world doesn’t believe Hitler was such a bad guy. His rhetoric sounds an awful lot like what many Muslim clerics and Arabic political leaders say every day.
Report Post »AB5r
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 10:32amMein Kampf is tame stuff compared to the Koran and Hadith which as it turns out contain a higher percentage of anti-Jew hate speech.
Google this – [Mein kampf site:politicalislam.com] and see the statistical analysis of this. In Mecca Muhammad was nice about Jews but once they rejected him for the false prophet he was he turned all Hitler and the Medina Koran, the later one, is more anti-semitic than Mein Kampf.
Report Post »snowmonk
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:54amI heard that the Rev J Jackson was giving copy’s out for Christmas.
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:48amShouldn’t that be the “72 VIRGINS MEGASTORE” ??
Report Post »normbal
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:31amOkay okay, it was mistranslated. They meant “Dreams from My Father.”
I mean, what’s the difference?
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:18amYes it was a western traveler. Once again : in the article.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:17amThe stores were bought out by an arab investment group. It is in the article.
Report Post »texasfarmer
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:05amOdd name for a store in the Middle East.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:15amThere is a plan for seventy- two of them
Report Post »Jwmajic
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 2:33pm72 Wide eyed little boys will be waiting for them since thats what they prefer. If you don’t belive me just look up dancing boys of Afghanistan.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/apr/16/frontline-dancing-boys-afghanistan/
Report Post »brianoflondon
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:22amIt should be noted that Mein Kampf has, for a very long time, been the second best selling book in Arabic. No prizes for guessing the No 1 bestseller.
Report Post »old white guy
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:12ami was only following orders.
Report Post »AB5r
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 4:55pmand muslims are only following their religion and the example of muhammad.
Report Post »bhelmet
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:51amI agree everyone should read it for EDUCATIONAL reasons. However, I do not see that being the purpose in the ever-growing extreme Middle East. The only education they seem to seek is how to kill their enemies.
Report Post »SurhanSurhan
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:52am@ BHELMET- Mein Kempf was written by Hitler and Hitler was a Christian. Christians do not want the Muslim community to know how they slaughtered 6 million Jews.
Report Post »Jennifer_D
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:24am@BHelmet
Hitler was not a Christian. He became like God to the Germans himself. He was addicted to drugs, a hypochondriac, obsessed with looking “strong”, and an all around idiot. Anything that stood in the way of his agenda was demolished including any religion.
The fact that Mein Kampf is being added to recommendation displays shouldn’t be a surprise at all. It has always been a top seller, but there are definite reasons for these people to be emboldened now. They are not reading this book for it’s “educational” value; they want tips for future reference.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 10:15amRead “Mein Kampf” for educational purposes? I wouldn’t advise it. The only thing you will learn from struggling through this morass is that Hitler was a very bad writer.
Report Post »tzion
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:30amI agree. Banning the book or marginalizing those who read is to invite history to repeat itself.
Report Post »dudeman4
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 6:29pmHitler was inspired by the materialist Nietzche. Christian?….No.
Report Post »weconvene
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:39pmUmmm SurhanSurhan! Hitler was no Christian! He replaced his picture from the picture of Christ in all the churches in his domain! He was a lier! He was black as Hell! You are mis informe and painfully uneducated!
Report Post »heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:06pmsirhan- You state
“Mein Kempf was written by Hitler and Hitler was a Christian. Christians do not want the Muslim community to know how they slaughtered 6 million Jews.”
This sounds like somthing the antichrist might say!
You challenged me to prove that islam is the antichrist’s religion and I have provided proof. You then stop responding to me and go elswhere spouting your puss all over this site. Ill try again…
Report Post »sirhan- YOU STATED THAT THE ARABIC VERSION OF THE QURAN WAS THE PERFECT WORD OF GOD AND HAS REMAINED “UNALTERED” but there’s just one problem:
-Some dude named ‘Yusuf Ali’ added the word ‘Abraham’ to your quran translations to make it read: “We gave (Abraham) Isaac and Jacob, and ordained among his progeny Prophethood and Revelation.” FACT! Ill bet this really gets ur turbin in a bunch that he would fudge this whole thing up like that!
By adding Abraham, it is possible to include Muhammad in the prophetic line!FACT! (this however debunks YOUR entire religion!)
OUCH!
However, Abraham is not found in the Arabic text of the Qur’an which YOU consider to be perfectly correct!
Muhammad came from Ishmael, FACT!
Heirs to the Jewish throne came from Isaac. FACT !
The Torah states, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac,” (Genesis 17:21)FACT! Later, God repeats the same message, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” (Genesis 21:12)FACT!
You defend this abomination called the quran by quoting it!
heartitorleaveit
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 11:17pmPS. sirhan, this is why everything you say is backwards just like a good rep of the antichrist would do! everybody including all Christians also consider hitler as an incarnation of the antichrist AND that you are an idiot. heck its been prooven. How can muhamma be a the prophet you propose if he is not one of Gods chosen?
Did muhammad have sex with little girls? hmmmmm
(please refrain from using your left hand when typing ok? sirhan- can you send us a pic? we would all like to order some toilet paper with your and that muhammad dudes image on it! :]
whats up with all those accidental explotions in Iran anyway?
Egypt is sure gonna have more freedoms for there women n stuff now huh?
:]
Report Post »SurhanSurhan
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 11:12amHitler was raised in a Catholic family. He went to Catholic schools and served as an altar boy in the Catholic Church. Growing up in this environment, he surely learned something of the centuries of discrimination and persecution the Church had supported against Jews in Europe.
Hitler considered himself a Catholic until the day he died. In 1941 he told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals: “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.” In fact, Hitler was never excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and Mein Kampf was not placed on the Church’s Index of Forbidden Books.
As for atheism, Hitler specifically opposed it in a 1933 speech in Berlin: “We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.”
When Hitler was asked in 1933 what he planned to do about the Jews, he said he would do what Christians had been preaching for centuries. And the Nazis carried out their first large-scale pogrom of Jews in honor of Luther’s birthday.
Report Post »MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:44amI own a copy. Not because I hate. But because I am interested in the history and wanted to better understand why people can hate others so much.I have never been able to understand why someone can hate on the basis of race. I haven’t read it thoroughly, maybe someday I’ll get around to it. It sheds light on the mentality of extremists. I am not at all surprised that a bookstore in Qatar would recommend a book based on hatred. Is anyone?
Report Post »Ron Staiger
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:31amThere’s nothing wrong with reading Mein Kampf. It gives you a little insight into the twisted thinking of a monster. If more people here in the US had read it in the 30′s, they would have been more prepared for what was to come and may have been a bit more sympathetic to the plight of the Jews- but I doubt it. We had a chance to become a shining light to Europe’s Jews long before the killings began but we shut them out. Deportation was the first Nazi tool used to rid Europe of its Jews but with no place to send them, the Final Solution was implimented. All of those who did nothing to stop the slaughter are as guilty as those who dropped the Zyclon B into the showers. Now we see the fanatics turning once again against the Jews- this time in Israel and this administration will do nothing and has even stoked the fire with irresponsible comments by its diplomatic staff. They are complicit in what is about to come!
Report Post »brianoflondon
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:20amRon, you‘re completely correct and Churchill was screaming all through the 30’s for people to read it. He did.
The problem in the middle east today is that they put the damn book in the Self Help section.
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:29amThis is truly unbelievable.
Report Post »Continental Patriot
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:26am“But This is just another reason for everyone that’s paying attention to ignore anything any Idlamic country is saying about being neutral towards Israel. Their sentiment is obvious. Any liberal out there think the term Islamo-fascism is just a right wing conspiracy theory now? (I’m picturing loads of people with their fingers firmly in their ears going la-la-la I don’t care la-la-la).
Report Post »Continental Patriot
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:32amUgh my spelling is so atrocious when I’m using the iPhone to type this out. I mean Islamic, not Idlamic. What in the world is Idlamic anyway? Think I’ll look that up.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:24amI have read Mein Kampf. I used it to look into the mind of a meglomaniac and why. To me, it showed Hitler’s lunacy and anti-semitism. This made me more compassionate towards Israel. No doubt it would NOT in a Muslim country where lunacy and anti-semitism rule…
The Jew hating, mindless Muslim would love it.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on December 7, 2011 at 7:31amEveryone should read it.
Report Post »