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Book on Islam Surprises Trustees

October 19, 2006

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Trustees all over the country have been receiving a book critical of Islam, with no cover note, leading some to worry about why they were receiving the packages.

The address on the packages referred to their trustee status.

The book is Islamic Imperialism: A History, published by Yale University Press. The author is Efraim Karsh, a professor at the University of London who is highly regarded in neoconservative circles, but who has been harshly criticized by many in Middle Eastern studies. According to the Yale press, the book argues that the attacks on 9/11 reflect Islamic imperialism, and "Islam's war for world mastery."

The Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities sent an alert to members Wednesday disavowing any connection to the mailing, and saying that it would not have given out trustees' names so that someone could mail them the books. The AGB alert said that law enforcement officials were looking into the mailings.

The books were sent by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank that says it was founded "to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues."

M. Edward Whelan III, president of the center, confirmed Wednesday that his group had sent the books, and said that he did not know how many trustees were receiving them. The AGB alert said that 50,000 books had been shipped. Whelan said that trustees were not the only recipients and that some of the books had been sent to journalists and lawmakers, among others.

"We sent it to a broad range of folks in positions of responsibility," he said, "to prod thinking" about the challenges "posed by radical Islam." Whelan called the book "important, provocative, interesting."

Asked why there was no cover note explaining who was sending the book and why, he said that he believed the book "should speak for itself." As for trustees being concerned about receiving a book with no explanation, he said that "if trustees are disturbed by receiving this book, I think that signals a bigger problem in higher education."

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments on Book on Islam Surprises Trustees

Islamic Threat
Posted by Craig C , political pundit at http://blogresponder.blogspot.com on October 19, 2006 at 7:25am EDT
The sad part is that the higher ups in "higher" education are so into themselves that they don't understand what is happening in the world.

Happens in K-12 all the time
Posted by Tom McCool on October 19, 2006 at 8:50am EDT
College trustees get junk mail, and this is news?
Teachers and administrators in this country's elementary and high schools receive politically-slanted "curriculum" from both liberal and conservative groups every week. It's academic junk mail, no one gets upset about it (except for James Dobson on occasion) and it ends up in the trash where it belongs.
The best thing these trustees could have done was to throw the book away and not give it another thought. Instead, the book and its author is getting huge amounts of publicity.
And that was the whole point of the mailing.

Islamic Imperialism
Posted by feudi pandola on October 19, 2006 at 9:10am EDT
I have not yet read the book, but see nothing wrong with distributing it among trustees of colleges and universities. These people are in positions of public trust and their appointments are a matter of public record as well they should be. Anyone can find out the names of Trustees simply by accessing the 990 annnual reports that all not-for-profits must file.
The book was published the Yale Press, certainly not a "fly by night", enterprise. I assume it meets the same academic standards as the dozens of anti-Western, pro-Islamic books published by college presses over the past few years.
What's the problem?

Posted by K.T. on October 19, 2006 at 9:25am EDT
Why are "law enforcement officials were looking into the mailings." Do we now censor who and what can utilize the U.S. postal service. I've got a few political candidates I would like law enforcement to "look into."

much ado about nothing
Posted by Larry on October 19, 2006 at 10:51am EDT
First of all, I think most (if not all) trustees names are public. So, an intern and a week on the internet could turn them up. (E.g. http://www.uconn.edu/administration/bot.php ) Second of all, to say “law enforcement” is looking into it, is probably a bit of a stretch. Likely someone called the police, and a DA said “we will look into it.” Indeed, even if they called the postal inspectors, eventually a lawyer will conclude that no crime was committed, so there is nothing to investigate. So, as Tom, says: when the book goes in the garbage, the problem goes away.
Craig, While I am not a political pundit, I should probably note that people might be a tad offended by getting a book without a “cover note.” Considering that most people in academe are fully aware that some people don’t like Islam, nothing in the book would surprise people. On the other hand, nothing will change peoples’ minds, anyway.
Now, I probably should note that every now and then I send my offprints (i.e. journal articles) to colleagues. Sometimes I include a note. Sometimes I don’t. Probably I want to convince some of them of my views. Most of the time I just want them to remember me, or use my stuff as a reference. This is pretty much the norm.
Mr. Pandola, Whether it is a “fly by night” press is irrelevant.

Silly But Big News
Posted by John K. Wilson on October 19, 2006 at 10:51am EDT
Yes, of course it's silly that anyone would investigate people for sending out a book.
But the fact that a right-wing organization would spend close to $1 million to send out free books published by a university press is a really mind-blowing concept. Could I find someone to send out 50,000 copies of my Patriotic Correctness book to trustees?
And will this cause university presses in an era of budget cuts to seek out ideological groups to provide similar massive subsidies for their books?

A Better Book For
Posted by Paul D. Starr , Professor at Auburn University on October 19, 2006 at 2:20pm EDT
general readers would be
100 Myths About the Middle East
by Prof. Fred Halliday of the LSE
it is a recent very informative Univ. of Calif. Press paperback.

Not from AGB--and why that matters
Posted by Dan Levin , Vice President at AGB on October 19, 2006 at 3:55pm EDT
AGB has a long-established policy of not selling or releasing its membership list. We guarantee that to our members. When trustees receive a mailing with a label that identifies their trusteeship, they understandably are likely to assume that it comes either from their institution or from AGB. This book clearly came from neither, but AGB received many inquiries from confused and upset members wondering why we released their names or advising us that our database had been breached. We have contacted many members, advising them that this is not the case, but we have not contacted any law-enforcement agency about this.

Book May be OK but Marketing Isn't
Posted by Suzy Teele , Alumni Board Member on October 19, 2006 at 7:35pm EDT
I'm a non-acedemic board member of an alumni association with 20+ years of sales and marketing experience. Sending the book with no note did not achieve the objective, in my opinion. It is the equivalent of SPAM or junk mail. I, along with many others I'm sure, would be more inclined to read the book if a letter was enclosed indicating why it was sent to me ("important person flattery") and what the value of the book could be to me (the benefit). People are just too busy to figure stuff out anymore. Mine went in the trash.

cool fade - Pure PR - Simply Selling Item
Posted by Bilal on October 20, 2006 at 9:50am EDT
Mind you Suzy , but what you are talkin about is har core marketing a P & G so direct approach , not to mention the logicl customer patern you follow in building up your assumption. I see it the other way, If you got a letter from CIA or Ben Laden ( in case he has a website that can not reveal where he is:) ) then offcourse you will never send the mail to your Trash becuse it is not personzlized or at least doesnt have a cover letter and .
One more thing to all friends arguing here, dont you agree with me that it is a very obvious PR issue . look how many posts have we contributed here . a friend of mine in russia herd about this and another one in france , not to mention the "Muslim's world". the very funy thing is the amount of investment we need to have in conveying the " un-ethical influence techniques ", for isn't it so clear that the guys here are not following a marketing comm model as much as they are following an influencing one , a Public Relations ( PR) one ? they are targeting specific segment who someone had revealed its data to this ( marketeer), but still they are not adressing this segment !!!! weird enough ?? why would someone follow a segmentiation marketing effort and target this ( critical ) niche ( the opinion leaders ) if he /she doesnt want to personalize ? the answer is cool and clear. he /she wants to make us prob questions ..... he /she wants us to arrgue about it .. he /she wants us to publicize it .........and we did it so good so far as ( free ) sales representitives...
as for the book content .... there is a selling product that is called ( attacking Islam ), and the imperialism and capitalisim teaches us to ride the high waves well when they are there .. to be recognized and to generate bulks of gold !!:)

cool fade — Pure PR — Simply Selling Item
Posted by Bilal Zaiter , Socio - Cultural Comunication Consultant on October 20, 2006 at 10:55am EDT
cool fade — Pure PR — Simply Selling Item
Mind you Suzy , but what you are talkin about is har core marketing a P & G so direct approach , not to mention the logicl customer patern you follow in building up your assumption. I see it the other way, If you got a letter from CIA or Ben Laden ( in case he has a website that can not reveal where he is:) ) then offcourse you will never send the mail to your Trash becuse it is not personzlized or at least doesnt have a cover letter and. One more thing to all friends arguing here, dont you agree with me that it is a very obvious PR issue. look how many posts have we contributed here. a friend of mine in russia herd about this and another one in france , not to mention the “Muslim’s world". the very funy thing is the amount of investment we need to have in conveying the ” un-ethical influence techniques “, for isn’t it so clear that the guys here are not following a marketing comm model as much as they are following an influencing one , a Public Relations ( PR) one ? they are targeting specific segment who someone had revealed its data to this ( marketeer), but still they are not adressing this segment !!!! weird enough ?? why would someone follow a segmentiation marketing effort and target this ( critical ) niche ( the opinion leaders ) if he /she doesnt want to personalize ? the answer is cool and clear. he /she wants to make us prob questions ..... he /she wants us to arrgue about it .. he /she wants us to publicize it .........and we did it so good so far as ( free ) sales representitives...
as for the book content .... there is a selling product that is called ( attacking Islam ), and the imperialism and capitalisim teaches us to ride the high waves well when they are there .. to be recognized and to generate bulks of gold !!:)

Posted by Jerry on October 21, 2006 at 8:45pm EDT
If I was going to take a book I received in the mail seriously, I would want to know who paid to send it to me and why. It seems to me that we all need to consider that with everything see and hear and teach our students to do the same. I agree that there's no point in investigating it, but it is interested that trustees are being targeted.

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