Children’s book pulped for its ‘Islamophobia’
Publisher destroys copies of Biff, Chip and Kipper title following complaints about its ‘racist’ content
A POPULAR children’s book from the Biff, Chip and Kipper series has been withdrawn following complaints that its portrayal of Muslims was racist.
Oxford University Press has pulped copies of The Blue Eye, in which the young characters are transported to a foreign land with the help of a magic key.
The children find themselves in a busy street market, which appears to be somewhere in the Middle East, where the men wear white turbans and a woman is dressed in a niqab. “Let’s stay together,” says Biff. “The people don’t seem very friendly.”
Another character, Wilf, says: “I don’t like this place. It’s scary.”
Oxford University Press said it commissioned an independent review of the Biff, Chip and Kipper books after receiving complaints.
The publisher said: “The book was taken out of print completely in March this year following an independent review, and is no longer available to purchase. We destroyed remaining stock of the book, although a small number of copies may still remain in the supply chain. Some older titles may still be available in libraries, or as secondhand copies.
“We regularly review and make changes to our list of titles to ensure they are up-to-date, diverse, inclusive and reflective of the world we live in, and we take steps to remove any products that are no longer appropriate.
“We sincerely apologise for the offence this book has caused.”
The Blue Eye is one of several that have been withdrawn, although Oxford University Press declined to name the others as they said the list was regularly updated. A spokesman said: “As part of a continuous review of our publishing, Oxford University Press takes the decision to put stories out of print when they are deemed to fall short of the high standards of diversity and inclusivity we wish to promote through our publishing. In addition to this, titles may be amended or updated.
“We regularly review our backlist and make decisions internally and in conjunction with the authors about different titles on a case-by-case basis and for a variety of reasons.”
In The Blue Eye, the first men that the children see are aggressively kicking a door down as they chase a woman, who escapes through a window. The woman turns out to be a princess and the children join her, pursued by the thugs as the story becomes an action adventure.
They make it safely to her kingdom, where the people also wear turbans and the women wear hijabs, and where everyone is friendly and welcoming.
An image of the market scene attracted complaints when it was circulated on social media.
While some readers said critics should see the dialogue and plot in the context of “baddies” pursuing the princess, and suggested that the children were simply scared by being in unfamiliar surroundings, others said that it was Islamophobic.
“What makes this so bad is that this book is used in school to teach kids to read. So they also get to learn how to be Islamophobic at the same time,” said one Twitter user.
The Biff, Chip and Kipper collection has been used in primary schools for more than 30 years and was recently made into a show on the children’s channel Cbeebies.
Created by Roderick Hunt and Alex Brychta, the Biff, Chip and Kipper collection numbers more than 800 titles.
The book was amended in 2001 in an effort to make it more inclusive, with the line, “the people don’t seem very friendly” removed.