I’ve gotten numerous reports from readers who have attempted to purchase Alms for Jihad from Books a Million and elsewhere, only to have the purchase denied because that title is currently unavailable. That’s because, as Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and I discussed earlier this week, Khalid bin Mafouz has successfully bullied the Cambridge University Press into pulping the book. Cambridge has even sent out notices to have it removed from some libraries, and one librarian sent me this note as a comment on that:

I am sending this email because I listened to your interview with Dr. Ehrenfeld this morning. First, kudos to her. My prayers will be with her. I want to make one thing very clear to you from my perspective as a librarian, and I have been working in public libraries since Aug 01: You will never find this book on most public library shelves in America. Libraries–and this is a sad, sad thing that almost stopped me from becoming a librarian–are unabashadly and radically progressive. Simply go to ALA’s website and read some of their politics, especially issues surrounding the Patriot Act. Not hidden, not fair, not balanced. They preach fair access to all ideas without bias with one hand and bash all aspects of any Republican administration with the other. Michael Moore and Al Franken get top billing while Tammy Bruce and Michelle Malkin are not to be found. The bias is inescapable and pernicious. There I times I feel vaguely dirty because I work in such an environment.

So don’t expect public libraries in the US to stand behind Dr. Ehrenfeld and don’t expect them to stand for free speech. She is not bashing Bush, she is not talking diplomacy with the ‘poor misguided jihadists who are only fighting back against our evil imperialistic ways’, and she is telling the truth. All things abhored by the progressive public libraries of the United States...