Notes on the World of Islam and Us
Faiza Sehla Ambah,"Saudi Writer Recasts Kingdom's History," Washington Post, 4 February. Khalid al-Dakhil is suspended from his teaching position at King Saud University and his work as a historian of Wahhabism and the origins of the Saudi state is censored and banned on the Arabian peninsula. Yet, it is discussed on primary Arabic websites and the University of Michigan Press will publish his book, Understanding Wahhabism, this year.
Ian Buruma,"Tariq Ramadan has an Identity Issue," New York Times, 4 February. If Tariq Ramadan is strong enough to make the case for an Islam that engages western democracy, a western democracy like the United States ought to be strong enough to engage with him.
James Adams,"Shipments of Bestseller Halted," Globe and Mail, 3 February, reports cancellation of shipments of Paul William Roberts's A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq (2004) because of plagiarism, which Roberts acknowledges. The plagiarism was discovered by Matthew Skirvin at Agnosco. Plagiarizing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jay Bookman is evidence of good taste in theft, but if Skirvin and comments at Margaret Soltan's University Diaries are correct, Roberts may be a serial plagiarizer.