KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Singapore's National Library Board (NLB) will immediately remove a series of books published by a Malaysian company from all of its libraries in the republic over its controversial contents, The New Paper reported today.

The paper reported that the Malay-language books are part a series published in 2013 titled "Agama, Tamadun dan Arkeologi” (Religion, Civilisation and Archeology), focusing on religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and paganism.

"One of the books has, on its cover, children wearing yarmulkes, smiling as they hold machine guns,” the report said.

"In it, there are declarations of how the third world war will ‘start in the Middle East between Israel and the neighbouring countries, which are the Arab states’.”

The New Paper also reported that it found the questionable books in the junior non-fiction section of the Bishan Public Library on Tuesday.

"Some of the statements indicated that in one religion, people used to view their daughters on the same level as servants, and that their fathers held the right to sell them.

"Another volume describes how one religion believes that ‘plague, hell, poison, snakes and fire are all better than women’,” it reported.

It reported that there are eight books in the series, and a check of NLB's online catalogue revealed that there were about 30 copies of each book in the country’s libraries, with six copies currently on loan, as of press time.

The daily reported that the books were first discovered by a Singaporean Twitter user, who took to the social media platform to post photos of the book on Sunday. The user has since deleted his account following backlash against his criticisms.

It also quoted an NLB representative saying that while all efforts are done to ensure that the books it authorises do not offend the public, the body is unable to vet all titles before placing it on the shelves.

"We take the feedback on the Agama, Tamadun dan Arkeologi seriously and will withdraw the books immediately.

"NLB will call upon the Library Consultative Panel to review the series,” said the unnamed representative quoted.