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Aafaq Bookstore, a newly-opened shop on London’s Edgware Road, stocked Arabic-language copies of Adolf Hitler’s antisemitic manifesto Mein Kampf, published by a company under the same ownership.
Conservative Westminster Councillor Elliot Keck disclosed the discovery on X on Thursday. The covers depicted Adolf Hitler giving the Nazi salute.
Keck said the copies were displayed on one of the store’s main tables, an account Aafaq disputed.
The edition’s back cover names Aafaq Publishing and Distribution, while its ISBN identifies Aafaq as the publisher. Both the publisher and bookstore are owned by Dr. Naser Al Shammari. Jewish News found no indication on the photographed covers that the edition was critical or annotated, though it did not examine the contents.
Keck said the copies were “not being sold as academic reference pieces.”
“What does it say about antisemitism within this community?” he wrote. Keck noted that the bookstore is “just minutes away from West Central London Synagogue.”
He also described his “disgust” at finding the books. Keck said he rarely wished ill on a new business but hoped this one “fails, and fails quickly.”
As councillor for Hyde Park, I'm always interested in checking out new businesses in my patch.
Imagine my disgust upon going into this new Arabic bookstore on the Edgware Road last night only to find them selling multiple copies of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, apparently… pic.twitter.com/s4oDcLhlkI
— Cllr Elliot Keck (@ElliotKeck) August 13, 2026
Selling the book remains legal in Britain, including editions intended for historical and academic study.
The Community Security Trust (CST) described Mein Kampf as “the most infamous antisemitic text of the Holocaust era” and said no Arabic bookshop in London should be “publishing and promoting” it.
Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said the organization was investigating the matter with other Jewish communal groups.
In a statement to The Jewish Chronicle, Aafaq said it held only three copies, stacked together among history titles on a table about 18 meters from the entrance, and sold none.
The bookstore said it “unequivocally rejects Nazi ideology, antisemitism, racism and all forms of hatred.” The retailer later removed Mein Kampf from sale.
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