The Libel Tourist Strikes Again
Currie, Duncan
The Libel Tourist Strikes Again How to kill a book you don't like. by Duncan Currie In late July, Cambridge University Press announced it was destroying all its remaining copies of Alms for Jihad,...
...Burr told the New York Sun that "their book mentioned Sheikh Mah-fouz 13 times, and in no place had they labeled him a terrorist...
...In Britain, it lies with the defendant, which can make it terribly difficult and expensive to ward off a defamation charge, even if the balance of evidence supports the defendant...
...Therefore, "To emphasize their regret, Cambridge University Press has agreed to pay Sheikh Khalid substantial damages and to make a contribution to his legal costs, both of which Sheikh Khalid is donating to the charity UNICEF...
...Neither Burr nor Collins joined the apology...
...Many "charities," it seems, have fueled Islamic radicalization across the globe and given tangible assistance to terrorists...
...I'm not going to recant on something just from the threat of a billionaire Saudi sheikh...
...This lack of outrage is "absolutely appalling," Ehrenfeld says...
...by Duncan Currie In late July, Cambridge University Press announced it was destroying all its remaining copies of Alms for Jihad, a 2006 book exploring the nexus of Islamic charities and Islamic radicalism...
...She will not apologize for her book, having "not even a shadow of a doubt" that her accusations against bin Mahfouz are true...
...They gave it a green light...
...In a case more relevant to the Alms for Jihad spat, bin Mahfouz sued Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy, over her 2003 book Funding Evil, which painted a detailed picture of how money travels into the coffers of terrorist groups...
...Lipstadt won the decision, but not before she incurred staggering legal bills...
...Ehrenfeld fingered bin Mahfouz as a financier—whether deliberate or not—of al Qaeda, Hamas, and others...
...But they include charges that through his former bank, the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, and through an Islamic charity he sponsored, the Muwafaq ("Blessed Relief") Foundation, bin Mahfouz either knowingly or unknowingly lent financial aid to terrorists...
...Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Ehrenfeld could challenge the British libel decision in a U.S...
...After all, "It's probably the cheapest way out," since U.S...
...It still is...
...His allies point to a string of successful libel challenges as vindication...
...Whilst the allegations were originally published in good faith, Cambridge University Press now recognizes that the information upon which they were based was wrong...
...Burr and Collins, who together have written many books on Islam and Middle East politics, also offer a very good discussion of the philosophy behind and role of the various manifestations of charitable giving in Islam...
...binmahfouz.info, insisting his family "abhors violence as a way of achieving political or other objectives...
...Both American writers and U.S...
...What's more, he adds, "I think I'm a damn good historian...
...In America, the burden of proof in a libel suit lies with the plaintiff...
...publishers might have to stop contentious books being sold on the Internet in case they reach the 'claimant-friendly' English courts...
...and British libel laws "are as different as night and day...
...I'm not angry with them...
...The latter read in part: In 2006 Cambridge University Press Duncan Currie is a reporter at The Weekly Standard...
...The reason...
...In October 2001, the U.S...
...Fear of being sued in a British court by Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi billionaire who ranks as one of the world's richest men—and whose suspected links to terrorist financing earned him a mention in Alms for Jihad...
...There is not room here to fully examine them...
...Funding Evil, for which ex-CIA director James Woolsey penned the foreword, was billed on its cover as "The book the Saudis don't want you to read...
...A May 2006 review in Toronto's Globe and Mail said that Alms for Jihad provides the most comprehensive look at the web of Islamic charities that have financed conflicts all around the world: Afghanistan, Israel, Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Indonesia and the Philippines...
...As Collins points out, the book is extensively referenced with hundreds of footnotes...
...citizen who published her book in America, where bin Mah-fouz would not have won his libel case...
...In June, the Second U.S...
...Cambridge University Press accepts that there is no truth whatsoever in these serious allegations...
...published Alms for Jihad written by J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins which made certain defamatory allegations about Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz and his family in connection with the funding of terrorism...
...There's been very little mainstream media coverage" of the Alms for Jihad story, observes Jeffrey Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Bonus Books (which published Funding Evil...
...Cambridge, frankly, came to us and said, 'There's no way we can win this case.' And I had to agree with them," Collins says...
...We refused to be a party to the settlement," says Collins, a professor emeritus of history at the University of California-Santa Barbara...
...Just ask Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt, who found herself hauled into court in Britain when she tagged David Irving as a Holocaust denier...
...Bin Mahfouz has a habit of using the English tort regime to squelch any unwanted discussion of his record...
...court system...
...citizens, they stand by their scholarship...
...In May 2005, the London Times reported that "Sheikh bin Mahfouz has sued four times in London for statements concerning his alleged role in terrorism financing...
...More than two years ago, the London Times warned that "U.S...
...He is the most prominent Saudi "libel tourist," the moniker given to those who exploit British law to silence critics...
...But whether Burr and Col-lins—not to mention Ehrenfeld and others—are right or wrong about bin Mahfouz, does that justify pulping an entire book...
...As for her own legal struggle, she says, "It's been a very lonely fight...
...They are burning books now in England, and we are sitting here doing nothing...
...He has never lost...
...Bin Mahfouz's lawyers originally secured British jurisdiction by showing that Funding Evil could be purchased—and read—in Britain via the Internet...
...Treasury Department described Muwafaq as "an al Qaeda front that receives funding from wealthy Saudi businessmen...
...According to Collins, Cambridge's in-house lawyers reviewed the manuscript of Alms for Jihad in 2005, prior to publication...
...Bin Mahfouz denies all such allegations on his website, www...
...A British judge then ordered Ehrenfeld to repudiate her statements, apologize to the Saudi magnate, pay him over $225,000 in damages—and destroy copies of her book...
...I'm disappointed in the Press, but I understand their position...
...So why hasn't this become a cause celebre for American publishing firms and journalists...
...Instead, she chose to fight this ruling in the U.S...
...Ehrenfeld argues that the verdict cannot be enforced here because she is a U.S...
...He quickly sued her for libel in England, and Ehrenfeld chose not to contest it...
...Cambridge issued a formal apology to bin Mahfouz, and posted a separate public apology on its website...
...At the same time, Cambridge asked libraries around the world to stop carrying the book on their shelves...
...But when faced with the specter of a costly legal battle, the publisher caved...
...court, thus setting an important precedent...
...Therein lies the deeper significance of this case...
...According to Ehrenfeld, there are "at least 36 cases" since March 2002 where bin Mahfouz has either sued or threatened to sue (mostly the latter) in England over the documentation of his alleged terror connections...
...It's had a tremendous chilling effect," Ehrenfeld argues, on those seeking to investigate bin Mahfouz and other Saudi bigwigs...
Vol. 12 • August 2007 • No. 46
