Prime Minister Gordon Brown also announced key cultural partnerships to promote greater understanding of the contribution of Islam to European history and culture © Crown Copyright 2007

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has announced that it is to draw up guidelines to deal with inflammatory material disseminated through libraries and archives.

The move comes after Gordon Brown announced in the Commons this week that the Secretary of State for Culture was working with the MLA to “agree a common approach to deal with inflammatory and extremist material that some seek to distribute through public libraries, whilst also protecting freedom of speech.”

The PM also said that a green paper will be published to encourage interfaith groups to come together in every constituency of the country. He is also inviting the Higher Education Funding Council to investigate the idea of setting up in Britain a European Centre of Excellence for Islamic studies.

Arts Council England, Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Library will also all be taking forward projects to promote greater understanding of the contribution of Islam to European history and culture.

All of the organistations have been actively involved during 2007 in exhibitions and programmes that explore the culture of Islam and in some cases the interconnectivity of all religions.

Sultan Baybars Qur’an, shown in the British Library's Sacred exhibition in the summer of 2007. © British Library

In response, the MLA said that libraries wanted to properly balance the principles of freedom of thought and expression with the need to protect society, especially minority groups, from any risk of inadvertently propagating material that ignites hatred and extremism.

A statement from the organisation said: “The MLA recognises this is a complex area and we will draw up additional guidance to help library authorities take careful and balanced decisions on how to spend their book budgets in consultation with their local communities.”

“Fair and balanced book purchasing with limited budgets is an issue for all communities and care must be taken not to single out one religion or school of thought. In drawing up the guidance, we will consult widely, not only with local authorities, but with national representative groups about how the infinite wealth of book-writing from different traditions is best represented in public libraries, and community cohesion is enhanced as a result."