The author of the book Alms for Jihad, about who is funding the jihadist movement, a book banned by its dhimmi publisher under Saudi pressure, has passed away.
“Robert O. Collins, 75; UC scholar’s Bin Laden book was withdrawn by publisher,” by Jocelyn Y. Stewart for the Los Angeles Times (thanks to Twostellas):
In a career devoted to the study of Africa’s Upper Nile Valley, particularly Sudan, historian Robert O. Collins wrote books and articles that were considered required reading for scholars and students of Africa.
The U.S. government sought his insight on the conflict in Darfur and on Osama bin Laden. Hollywood filmmakers asked his advice in depicting the region on screen. A former president of Sudan presented Collins with a distinguished award for scholarship.
But when Collins and a colleague wrote the 2006 book “Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World,” the two historians found themselves in the middle of what the New York Times called an international cause celebre.
To avoid a defamation lawsuit in British courts — where the burden of proof is on the defendant — the publisher of “Alms” apologized to a wealthy Saudi mentioned in the book, Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, and paid a settlement. The publisher, Cambridge University Press, also destroyed all unsold copies of “Alms,” an act of pure heresy to Collins and other scholars.
Until his death from cancer in Santa Barbara on April 11, the 75-year-old Collins maintained that he and J. Millard Burr had written a good book that deserved to exist.
“The Shaykh can burn the books in Britain, but he cannot prevent the recovery of the copyright by the authors nor their search for a U.S. publisher to reprint a new edition of ‘Alms for Jihad,’ ” Collins said in an essay posted online at George Mason University’s History News Network….
I am sorry that he did not live to see his struggle through to victory. That victory is now up to us.
May his memory be eternal.