Alms for Jihad

I’m just catching up on all the good work Stanley Kurtz and others are doing on the book-pulping intimidation our friends the Saudis are doing. The target, but by no means the only one, is Alms for Jihad. Note that it is “not available” on Amazon as a book anymore. I’m trying to buy it as a download, but it isn’t working. Amazon took my money, though, so I’m going to insist. This post on Hot Air may mean all I get is a refund.

Kurtz raised the warning last Wednesday. Read that first. His update from Friday is here. Then you can read a list of Muslim libel cases on the Counterterrorism Blog stretching back to 1935.

Michelle Malkin reports on those standing up for critics of Jihad, singling out for praise the Legal Project of the Middle East Forum, which has stepped up to the plate to defend Robert Spencer and the YAF from CAIR’s thuggery. And here’s Hot Air on the efforts of one rich Islamist to silence free speech in America using the courts in the UK.

The situation is appalling.

You may want to consider a contribution to the American Center for Democracy.

Update:

Kurtz has a followup.

The issues at stake include freedom of speech, national sovereignty, the legal and social effects of the Internet, and the war on terror. Several questions present themselves, including: 1) Is mainstream media coverage failing as a direct or indirect outcome of the earlier suits? 2) Did the earlier suits leveled at major newspapers and magazines include specific agreements forbidding future coverage? 3) Are American libraries complying with Cambridge University Press’s letter calling for the withdrawal of Alms for Jihad from their shelves? 4) What, if any, are their legal obligations to comply? 5) Are libraries that chose not to comply in any danger? 5) Why are we not hearing anything more from the American publishing industry about the threat they are under?

That is only a very partial list of questions. But right now I think there is time pressure on the question of the status of Alms for Jihad at various libraries. Within a week it could be too late to save the remaining copies of the book. We need a publicly mounted list of all American libraries containing Alms for Jihad. We need to make public inquiries as to whether the book is being removed or not. We need to know if the books, once removed, are being destroyed. We need to know exactly what is in the letter that Cambridge University Press has sent to American libraries. Does it call for destruction of the book, or merely removal (if destruction, then a campaign to return the books to the shelves will fail). If American libraries have a clear legal right not to comply with the Cambridge letter, and if they can be shown that they are not under any serious threat, they need to be told as much, and quickly.

Above all, we need mainstream media coverage. But that will only happen, if at all, after further discussion on the blogosphere. And as noted, we also need to know much more about what effect, if any, the suits and settlements of the past may be having on media coverage in the present. And we need to encourage financial support for Ehrenfeld.

Another Update:

A commenter says it’s available for download at mobipocket.com – and I got a response from Amazon saying they can download it fine, so I must have a browser problem. So far their suggestions haven’t worked, but it seems to mean they do still have it. Maybe the letter from the publisher “forgot” to mention digital copies.

Last Update:

Do not try to buy it as a download at Amazon. What you get for your $9.95 is a review of the book. All 2 pages of it. Amazon is now refunding my money. And no, I have no idea who pays ten bucks for a two-page book review.