Last week, Canadian human rights activist Yasmine Mohammed released her first book – Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam. One of the tools Mohammed planned to use when promoting the book was Amazon ads. However, yesterday Mohammed was told that despite Amazon selling the book on its platform, her ads promoting the book have been rejected because its “audiences may see a controversial topic, person, or event.”
A day in the life of being me:
You fight your whole life to escape from hate, violence, and authoritarian laws…and once you’re out, you dust yourself off, stand tall, and get bombarded all over again from the other, ‘free’, side.
I’m too controversial, but Hitler is fine. Ok. pic.twitter.com/CPArltW8RI
— Yasmine Mohammed ياسمين محمد 🦋 (@YasMohammedxx) October 4, 2019
In the book, Mohammed, who is an ex-Muslim, shares her experiences as a first-generation Canadian who was raised in a fundamentalist Islamic home and had an arranged marriage to a member of Al-Qaeda.
Mohammed responded to Amazon’s decision by questioning why she’s “too controversial” to run ads but books from Adolf Hitler are allowed to be sold on the platform. She also asked why stories about leaving Islam are deemed to be controversial yet stories about leaving other religions are not.
Writing about leaving the Westboro Baptist Church is not controversial
Writing about leaving Hasidic Judaism is not controversial
Writing about leaving Scientology is not controversial
Writing about leaving any religion is not controversial EXCEPT ISLAM
Why the discrepancy?
— Yasmine Mohammed ياسمين محمد 🦋 (@YasMohammedxx) October 4, 2019
Amazon’s decision means that while customers can still buy Mohammed’s book on Amazon, she won’t be able to use Amazon ads to promote the book to prospective new customers.
A few hours after she shared the news that Amazon had blocked her ads for the book, Mohammed says her post was then removed by Facebook for violating its community standards.
My post complaining about Amazon for rejecting my book for ads because it’s ‘controversial’ was just removed by Facebook for violating community standards.
I need a break. I can’t deal w this anymore.
— Yasmine Mohammed ياسمين محمد 🦋 (@YasMohammedxx) October 4, 2019
Before Amazon rejected her ads, Mohammed faced yet another setback related to her new book when Twitter suspended her account shortly after it was released. Twitter did ultimately reverse the decision and said that her account “was flagged as spam by mistake.” However, while she was locked out of her Twitter account, she was unable to promote her book on the platform.
Thank you, @Twitter pic.twitter.com/hGtfUokMmf
— Yasmine Mohammed ياسمين محمد 🦋 (@YasMohammedxx) September 30, 2019
In addition to experiencing these suspensions and rejections in the wake of her book release, Mohammed said that she’s also faced consistent censorship on YouTube, despite not having her own YouTube channel:
“This is exactly what happens with YouTube too. The minute something goes up w my name, it’s instantly demonetized. I don’t have a YouTube pg, but anyone who shares videos of me, like @TheFSClub or @RubinReport or @ThinkingAtheist etc gets rejected for monetization.”
This is exactly what happens with YouTube too. The minute something goes up w my name, it’s instantly demonetized. I don’t have a YouTube pg, but anyone who shares videos of me, like @TheFSClub or @RubinReport or @ThinkingAtheist etc gets rejected for monetization.
— Yasmine Mohammed ياسمين محمد 🦋 (@YasMohammedxx) October 4, 2019
In July, Mohammed also had further issues with Twitter when she was told that her tweet may violate UK speech laws, even though she’s a Canadian citizen.
Mohammed isn’t the only person to have issues promoting or selling books on Amazon in recent years. In March, the company banned Mohammed’s Koran – a book that is critical of Islam. Earlier this year, Amazon also banned ads for a book about ending gun violence – The End Of Killing.
