Is Amazon Suppressing a Book That Criticizes Islam?

Yes, I wrote the book in question, but that’s beside the point. If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone who doesn’t hold the views that the leftist establishment finds acceptable. With Amazon being almost the only source for books now, and by far the largest, that’s a dangerous development for any society that values the freedom of speech.

It’s an odd thing. My latest book, The Tragedy of Islam: it has an Amazon page, and that page seems to be in full working order. You can find it here.

If, however, you didn't click on that link I just provided, but instead went to Amazon and tried to find the book yourself, if your experience is anything like mine just now, you will see that the book is impossible to find. Search for it every which way, and it does not come up. Is Amazon trying to suppress access to this book? It sure looks as if it is.

I asked several other people to replicate this experiment, and they had the same results: They could find the book by clicking on a pre-existing link, but no matter what they searched for at Amazon, including the book’s specific title, subtitle, and author, it doesn’t come up. If you have a minute, please try it yourself and let me know in the comments what results you get.

I found this out because I needed the link to the book's sale page, and as I was already at Amazon, instead of going to my website and clicking on the link there, I typed the book's title into the search bar. What came up for "The Tragedy of Islam" was Imam Mohammad Tawhidi's book from several years ago of the same name and a host of other books with similar names, but my book The Tragedy of Islam was nowhere to be seen. In fact, my book did not appear on the entire page of results for a search of the exact title of the book.

This is not normal. I typed in the names of a few of my other recent books, and they came right up in the searches, either as the first or second result.

So I started to search for The Tragedy of Islam with more information: by the full title, The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses, as well as “The Tragedy of Islam Spencer,” “The Tragedy of Islam Robert Spencer,” "The Tragedy of Islam by Robert Spencer," and even "The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses by Robert Spencer, Bombardier Books." Every search turned up another book I had written, or else Tawhidi's book. None of the searches, not one, turned up the actual book The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses anywhere on the first page of search results.

Yet the book is offered at Amazon. Apparently, however, you can only get to it by clicking on a link to it you may find somewhere, not by searching at Amazon. This is a new form of censorship I haven't encountered before. Amazon can say that they are offering the book for sale and that all is well. They're just hiding it.

In the past, Amazon has dropped Mohammed’s Koran by Peter McLoughlin and Tommy Robinson, as well as McLoughlin’s Easy Meat about the Muslim rape gang scandals in the UK, and so it’s not at all beyond the realm of possibility that they’re suppressing The Tragedy of Islam, which argues that Islam is a failure, bad for both individuals and societies. They got a lot of heat, however, for dropping the earlier books, and so this time they can say there is no problem at all: The book is in stock and listed, and they’re taking orders for it. Hiding it? Ah, come on, Spencer, you’re just being paranoid!

But remember the old adage: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Or maybe the whole thing is just some glitch. Maybe. But my work has been censored in all kinds of ways for years. And it looks as if it's still going on.

It also looks as if someone somewhere is very frightened that you will read this book. Get it while you can, either from Amazon (since their link still works if you can get to it) or Barnes and Noble, or from one of the vanishing number of bookstores that still exist. Get it while you can: you know that when the powers are trying to suppress it that it's over the target.

At Barnes and Noble, by the way, the book came right up in a search for the title.

Editor’s Note: Here at PJ Media, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.

Help us fight back against government censorship by joining PJ Media VIP and using promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.