Cambridge University Press has agreed to destory the remaining copies of the embattled book Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World due to a lawsuit from Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker. Mahfouz had claimed to be libeled by suggestions in the book that he was associated with terrorism through various businesses and charities.
Cambridge also promised to ask libraries around the world to remove the book from their collections. That ought to be really successful! Read more:
Libraries
Under what circumstances should libraries pull a book when libel is involved?
I can see a legitimate academic reason for a library to keep the book. If someone writes and article about the libel issues around this book shouldn’t they be able to get the book from some library? Or should all libraries pull the book?
Re:Libraries
So they’re asking libraries to pull the book? Riiiight….Good luck with that.
I noticed on Worldcat that several libraries in my state have it. Good. Let’s keep it that way.
Re:Libraries
“Under what circumstances should libraries pull a book when libel is involved?”
I would guess that it should be pulled from an American library when libel is proven in a US court of law. Simply threatening libel isn’t good enough otherwise it just becomes a tool to suppress speech.
A book does not have to exist to study the case law about it, assuming the case law covers the relevant passages.