I was on my way to Wal-mart to get something really important when I came up with the idea to blog through the Koran. Then I wondered where to get the Koran. So, when I got to Wal-mart, I looked in their religious section of the books they sell. At Wal-Mart, religious means Christian.
I knew I could a copy from amazon or some online store, but that would be too easy and take some time. I wanted a copy today.
During my experience at the world's largest retailer, I wondered what it would be like to look for a copy of the Bible and see only Korans and books about the Koran. I wondered what it would be like with shelves of books with only Muslim authors and books about how to be a good Muslim. I began to feel a little alienated just thinking about it.
I left the retail giant in search if the Koran in Minnesota suburbia. Would I even be able to find one at all?
I headed over to Half-Priced Books. I figured if there was one there, it would be cheap, which was quite important since I have no extra money to be jacking around buying books with. I found a copy - a single copy - the store's only copy. Now they have no copies of the Koran because I have the only one available. I now own more copies of the Koran than Half-Priced Books and Wal-Mart combined.
In my search at Half-Priced Books, I found lots of religious books. Many Christian books, of course. But there were several shelves of Buddhist books and several other religions. The second biggest load of books were Wiccan books. There were more books on how to be a sexy witch than there were copies of the Koran. I am not interested in being a sexy witch, so I breezed past those books figuring there was little chance of finding Mohammed in the sexy witch section.
I did get my hands on a copy of the Koran, though, and I am glad.
The process of finding a copy of the Koran was itself enlightening. It was inconvenient and a little sad, say, if I were Muslim and believed it to be the truth for all people for all times. How little it is respected in America. Sexy witches get more respect than Islam in America.
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3 comments:
These stores don't care about sensitivity. Their inventory is going to be based on what sells. As one who grew up in Minnesota I experience something similar when I am looking for Vikings T-Shirts and whatnot down here in Missouri. I hear what your saying - I am not challenging it - but I do think it is just a reality of a consumer driven market. I would love to see all the adult bookstores in town close down - but I don't think that is going to happen until they can't make any money.
I wonder if there is something more to this regarding the Koran? I wonder if it has to do with English translations and the possiblility that most are not accepted by practicing Muslims? Kind of like the KJ only deal. Maybe many Muslims are not so interested in large distribution of these English translations?
Just some thoughts. I look forward to following this journey of yours more. I am interested in a similar journey sometime in the future.
Take Care,
Rob
Rob, you are probably right.
I agree with Rob Horton, that it is entirely a marketing decision. And this one seems to be a pretty smart one, since a poll shows that between 1990-2001 Wicca had a 1,575% growth in the number of self-described adherents. That was the highest growth out of any faith community, Christian or non-Christian. Read about it the poll here: http://thesacredpage.blogspot.com/2007/01/religion-by-numbers.html
BTW, there was a 109% increase in self-described adherents of Islam. That's pretty respectable too.
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