Controversial ISIS Coloring Book Reaches Vestavia Home
Really Big Coloring Books, which credits itself with starting the adult coloring book craze, has come out with a new and controversial one titled “ISIS: A Culture of Evil.” The company sent thousands unsolicited around the country, and one ended up in a Muslim household in Vestavia Hills.
Henna Budhwani had just gotten home from work and was going through the mail when she found a manilla envelope. “I opened this up and I was horrified. Initially it took a minute to even register what I was looking at because it was a coloring book, but it felt anti-Islamic. It talked about anti-ISIS. It had a parental warning on it,” she says.
The cover shows a beheading, and there’s more graphic violence inside. Budhwani is Muslim, and she panicked. “I felt genuinely targeted,” she says.” I thought that someone had pulled my name from a database and said you’re a Muslim living in Alabama, and we want you out.”
But it turns out that the public-health researcher was on the company’s mailing list because several years ago, she worked on a related activity book that the company published.
Publisher Wayne Bell says there’s no reason for Muslims to take offense: “This is a pro-Islam book. There’s no doubt about it.” He says it’s part of a series including “We Shall Never Forget 9/11” and “The True Faces of Evil Global Terrorism.”
He says a lot of people “enjoy the fact that we’re not afraid to boldly go where a lot of publishers will not go.”
The company has also published titles like “Being Gay is Okay,” and books about dinosaurs and trains. Bell says the ISIS book is meant for adults. It includes a section saying that most Muslims don’t support ISIS. In addition to people like Budhwani, the book has been sent to hundreds of churches, synagogues and mosques.
Bill making the Public Service Commission an appointed board is dead for the session
Usually when discussing legislative action, the focus is on what's moving forward. But plenty of bills in a legislature stall or even die. Leaders in the Alabama legislature say a bill involving the Public Service Commission is dead for the session. We get details on that from Todd Stacy, host of Capitol Journal on Alabama Public Television.
My doctor keeps focusing on my weight. What other health metrics matter more?
Our Real Talk with a Doc columnist explains how to push back if your doctor's obsessed with weight loss. And what other health metrics matter more instead.
Baz Luhrmann will make you fall in love with Elvis Presley
The new movie is made up of footage originally shot in the early 1970s, which Luhrmann found in storage in a Kansas salt mine.
Forget the State of the Union. What’s the state of your quiz score?
What's the state of your union, quiz-wise? Find out!
A team of midlife cheerleaders in Ukraine refuses to let war defeat them
Ukrainian women in their 50s and 60s say they've embraced cheerleading as a way to cope with the extreme stress and anxiety of four years of Russia's full-scale invasion.
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, many Latinos question whether they belong
Many U.S.-born Latinos feel afraid and anxious amid the political rhetoric. Still, others wouldn't miss celebrating their country
