"Alms for Jihad" Currently unavailable

Mark Steyn on the recall of "Alms for Jihad: Charity And Terrorism in the Islamic World"  (written by J. Millard Burr and Robert O Collins) by publisher Cambridge University Press.  This is pathetic:

Last week, the Cambridge University Press agreed to recall all unsold copies of "Alms for Jihad" and pulp them. In addition, it has asked hundreds of libraries around the world to remove the volume from their shelves. This highly unusual action was accompanied by a letter to Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, in care of his English lawyers, explaining their reasons:

"Throughout the book there are serious and defamatory allegations about yourself and your family, alleging support for terrorism through your businesses, family and charities, and directly.

"As a result of what we now know, we accept and acknowledge that all of those allegations about you and your family, businesses and charities are entirely and manifestly false."

Oh, dear.  Can't upset "wealthy and influential" Saudis:

Who is Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz? Well, he's a very wealthy and influential Saudi. Big deal, you say. Is there any other kind? Yes, but even by the standards of very wealthy and influential Saudis, this guy is plugged in: He was the personal banker to the Saudi royal family and head of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, until he sold it to the Saudi government. He has a swanky pad in London and an Irish passport and multiple U.S. business connections, including to Thomas Kean, the chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

I'm not saying the 9/11 Commission is a Saudi shell operation, merely making the observation that, whenever you come across a big-shot Saudi, it's considerably less than six degrees of separation between him and the most respectable pillars of the American establishment.

As to whether allegations about support for terrorism by the sheikh and his "family, businesses and charities" are "entirely and manifestly false," the Cambridge University Press is going way further than the United States or most foreign governments would. Of his bank's funding of terrorism, Sheikh Mahfouz's lawyer has said: "Like upper management at any other major banking institution, Khalid Bin Mahfouz was not, of course, aware of every wire transfer moving through the bank. Had he known of any transfers that were going to fund al-Qaida or terrorism, he would not have permitted them." Sounds reasonable enough. Except that in this instance the Mahfouz bank was wiring money to the principal Mahfouz charity, the Muwafaq (or "Blessed Relief") Foundation, which in turn transferred them to Osama bin Laden.

Steyn asks and answers the question:  How will we lose the war against "radical Islam"?

We've gotten used to one-way multiculturalism: The world accepts that you can't open an Episcopal or Congregational church in Jeddah or Riyadh, but every week the Saudis can open radical mosques and madrassahs and pro-Saudi think-tanks in London and Toronto and Dearborn, Mich., and Falls Church, Va. And their global reach extends a little further day by day, inch by inch, in the lengthening shadows, as the lights go out one by one around the world.

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

***Update 8/7***

Much more information at Always On Watch.

Comments

[Maccus Germanis]

Perhaps we infidels should sue for the defamation and incitement to bodily harm found in the koran. Pulp that piece of garbage.

[Always On Watch]

This coming school term, my literature class will be reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, science fiction about a dystopia. In the novel firefighters burn books. So here we are with the reality being that Saudi Arabia can cause what amounts to a 21st Century book-burning.

How long before Saudi manages to get other books recalled or destroyed?

[mad_cow]

Chilling.

I'm wondering if a publisher in the US can get the rights to publish the book. I was thinking Regnery might do it.

Well said, MG

[Always On Watch]

I linked to your posting.

[mad_cow]

Thanks, I updated my post, too.

[Chad]

I emailed one of the authors, they are talking with Cambridge Press about copyright etc, with the goal of getting it re-printed in the USA.

It is still available currently as an ebook.
http://www.mobipocket.com
$22, Search for "Alms for Jihad" I got it last night and it's very well researched and the book is worth it for the research alone.

Last time I checked most of the 911 hijackers were saudi's, seems to me there isn't any confusion as to who we should be hunting down and bringing to justice.

[mad_cow]

Chad, thanks for the heads up on the ebook. I hope the authors can get it published. They obviously put a lot of work into it and people need to read it.

I also hope the story of the cave in to Sheikh Mahfouz gets more attention.

[kolf]

http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/43397-why-cup-acted-responsibly.html

Why don't you read this before making up your mind? Real publishers are in the business of responsibility for content, and the verification of facts, unlike the blogosphere where rumour flourishes unchecked. The authors of the book were unable to provide evidence to prove their claims beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law, so their publishers are therefore unable to fight on their behalf. A reputation for scholarly probity means considerably more than appeasing the "lights going out" opinions of the paranoid US Right, and it is that reputation which Cambridge University Press is presumably protecting.

If you have cast-iron proof of Mr Mahfouz's activities, then please, go ahead and publish your evidence. If, as I suspect, you know very little about him, then why sound off in a public forum?

[mad_cow]

I got my information on Sheikh Mahfouz the same as I assume you did. I read many sources and came to my own conclusion.

I notice your link is a blog as well, although I can't get the page to load.