Borders Books Closing is a Good Thing from Planck's Constant

Four years ago Borders banned the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contained cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries, see my series of articles on the Danish Cartoon affair.

Back then I wrote an article in which I suggested it would be a good thing if Borders closed down and all of its employees laid off and sent home because their act of appeasement only emboldens Muslims to intimidate other book stores and retail outlets.

Since then I have not set foot in a Borders or Waldenbooks store and have encouraged my friends not to give their business as well to this cowardly firm.

Now while they might not have been greatly affected by the small bit of traffic they lost to people like me, I am definitely sure that the main reason Borders filed for bankruptcy protection last Wednesday is precisely because they lost sight of what their customers really want and need.

Any company that would kowtow to the three Muslims in the world who buy books and deny reading material to millions of its own customers has only contempt for them. A book store is not just a place to buy books, perhaps years ago, but certainly today if the only purpose is to buy a book, then Amazon will do less expensively and more conveniently.

From what I read, Borders failed to make their stores into destinations. A place one would go to for a shopping experience - to enjoy that which an online retailer simply cannot offer. But how can a company offer something magical to its customers when it holds them in such disdain?

I say close it down, the whole company, it has lost its way and needs to be put out of its misery. And hopefully such will be the end of all American companies that bend their knees to Muslims.

But some readers may object, what about all those employees, those who did not kowtow to Muslims, should they lose their jobs for something their company did? Yes, they should. If I worked for a company that removed magazines so as not offend Muslims, I would have told the company that unless they reversed their decision, I would quit. If enough employees revolted, perhaps the company would have done the right thing, otherwise it would have been immoral for employees to stay working for such a firm.

I want to put this in perspective. Imagine it is 1933 and you work for a company that fired all its Jewish workers to appease the Nazi party. Wouldn't quitting have been the moral thing to do back then, to stop the slide into tyranny and chaos?

The executives of Borders should have known that in an Islamic world all of them would have been put up against a wall and shot for selling any books other than the Quran and Mein Kampf.