I am considering writing a biography of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Although the book has not been written yet, and I still haven’t decided whether or not even to do so, I received this email after asking people here what they thought of the idea of such a book:
Robert;
Because of the good work done on the two cites [sic] Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch, I am taking the time to explain something to you.
You are now actively interfering with something much larger than you understand.
Plagiarizing for money and inflated synthetic ego is a wrong turn in relation to the laws of Cause and Effect (Karma).
There are forces and repercussions at work that are beyond your present day comprehension.
BE WISE.
It is somewhat amusing (if you’re amused by that sort of thing) to be accused of plagiarism for a book I haven’t written yet. This person seems to think that there is room for only one biography of Muhammad (although of course many already exist), having made reference in earlier messages to a shoddy but nonetheless popular piece of work by another author that he evidently thinks I am interested in copying.
So I’ll take the opportunity to state it here, if it isn’t obvious already: I have always written my own books, and have no intention of stopping now. Nor am I am going to be cowed by threats or allow myself to be intimidated away from covering a subject that I believe needs to be covered in a way it has not been already. This is a fundamental test of a free society: will we continue to be able to discuss matters openly even if doing so offends others? If we let ourselves to be silenced by threats, our society is no longer free in any case.
I tend to think it would be worthwhile to write this book just in order to strike a small blow in defense of that fundamental aspect of freedom.