How The Islamists Are Censoring Book Publishing In America

An excellent article over here at Family Security Matters details how more and more books written about islam are being stopped in their tracks, even destroyed after a publishing run due to efforts by islamists around the world to halt their publication. Think about that for a moment. You are an author, you write a book critical of islam or putting islam into the spotlight, you sign a deal with a publisher, only to have that publisher bow to pressure of islamists and your book is gone. Here's some of the article:

Not long ago, a book titled “Alms for Jihad” was ridiculously voluntarily destroyed, “pulped” being the term, by its own publisher. This unusual action was taken because one activist Muslim took the bookseller to libel court and won, saying that he was somehow maligned by allegations in the book. The ridiculous part is that the book was published by Cambridge University Press but was sued by Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz in a British court. Neither the court nor the complainant was American. Yet, this foolish American publisher voluntarily destroyed its entire run and went to the effort to send a letter to libraries to tell them to remove the book from shelves over the verdict of this foreign court.

Alarmingly, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz has been successful in at least four such libel cases against book publishers throughout the world in these compliant, malleable British courts.

And this is not some isolated incidence by this foreign sheik. Look at this example of how an American professor objected to a book and it too has been "shelved.":

But, the publisher abruptly changed its decision as word that the review copies sent in advance had brought warnings of unrest. Sadly, it seems an American professor is the one responsible for starting the Islamofascist ball rolling on this one. In an effort to silence the publication of this book, Denise Spellberg, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, began to send warnings about the book to radical Islamists throughout the world.

I guess you can look to all of the violence and islamic whining worldwide over the publishing of the Danish cartoons for starting all of this unrest in the publishing community but what it amounts to is spineless publishers bowing to the rantings and tantrums of islamists. I'm having a hard time thinking of another example where publishing of a book was halted due to objections of a lawsuit or threatened outcry.

The really bad news here is the precedence being set here and how far reaching that will be. We see in the article where a book about the life of mohammed's 9 year old bride was shut down, so what will stop an action against a book that details the efforts of the Iranians to build nuclear weapons? Will actual recording of world history be jeopardized by the islamists who do not wish a single mention of criticism published?

This is all about the control of islam. It is a political ideology based upon submission. And it is being witnessed today that the islamic requirement for submission to it by infidels is not enough...that the submission must take many forms, not just the personal conversion to the beliefs and tenets. No, this is a movement to insulate the perversion and extremism of an ideology and I would put forth that an equivalent example would have been an American publisher putting a stop to a book that was critical of Hitler's naziism after pressure from nazis had been place on said publisher.

The islamists have realized that they can control the show anywhere in the world and that personal American freedoms don't mean squat as long as we have Americans with no evidence of a spine.

Islamists Rule American Publishing Industry

A professor, Deborah Lipstadt at Emory University, who won a libel suit in Britain brought against her and Penguin, likewise told The New York Sun that this action by Cambridge University Press was a “frightening development.” She said that it seemed to her that the Saudis were “systematically, case by case, book by book” challenging anything critical of them or anything that linked them to terrorism. She said that she could not think of any publisher that would now accept a manuscript critical of the Saudis. “This affects not only authors but readers,” she said, adding that “ideas are being chased out of the marketplace.”

Fortunately, some authors are trying to fight back to some extent.

The director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy, Rachel Ehrenfeld, said that Cambridge University Press “capitulated” and “didn’t even try to fight.” Sheikh Mahfouz sued her for her 2003 book “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It.” Rather than contesting the case in Britain, Ms. Ehrenfeld has taken to the American courts. In June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in her favor, finding that if an American writer is sued for libel in a foreign court, that person can appeal to an American court to request that a British decision not be enforceable here.

But this is not the end of the matter. Sadly, another American publisher has capitulated in the face of the hatred and threats of radical Islamists. According to the Wall Street Journal, Random House has “abruptly called off publication” of a new book about the sex life of Aisha, the child bride of the Prophet Muhammad.

In fact, for the sum of a $100,000 dollar advance, Random House had already bought the book and had begun to plan the book tour for author Sherry Jones. But, the publisher abruptly changed its decision as word that the review copies sent in advance had brought warnings of unrest. Sadly, it seems an American professor is the one responsible for starting the Islamofascist ball rolling on this one. In an effort to silence the publication of this book, Denise Spellberg, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, began to send warnings about the book to radical Islamists throughout the world.

After this Professor, a fellow traveler of radical Islam, got done rounding up the many hatemongers in Muslim communities she was in touch with, and her agitators in turn got in touch with the publisher, Random House got cold feet. In fact, they became scared to death.

On a May 21st conference call, Random House executive Elizabeth McGuire told the author and her agent that the publishing house had decided to postpone indefinitely the publication of the novel for “fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims” and concern for “the safety and security of the Random House building and employees.”

So much for America being the land of political and religious freedom, the land where anything can be achieved. It has become a land afraid of its own shadow, ruled by the stern warnings of lawyers and the fear of mob action. It has become a land where radical haters who claim to be “religious” can force law abiding citizens to live by the rulings of foreign courts and ideas antithetical to liberty.