George Kurian, who is also the president of the Christian Heritage Society and the Forum Against PC Censorship Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization was successfully completed in September 2008. It was completed a year ahead of schedule and in four volumes instead of the contractual three. It was edited, copyedited, fact checked, proofread and finally approved by Blackwell’s editorial team. It was printed and bound and then launched to high praise.

“Then the devil struck,” said Mr Kurian, alleging that the Oxford based editors “determined that the Introduction and many of the entries were ‘too Christian, too orthodox, too anti-secular and too anti-Muslim and not politically correct enough for being used in universities.’”

Publishers Wiley-Blackwell have written to contributors to say: “Mr Kurian has alleged that this review is being driven by an ‘anti-Christian lobby determined to ‘de-Christianise’ and censor the Encyclopedia.’ This allegation is completely without foundation. Wiley-Blackwell is a global company and is not affiliated with any lobby or group, religious or otherwise. We have promoted the freedom of expression and ideas for over 200 years and will continue to do so.”

Mr Kurian said: “It is classical corporate response: suppressio veri, suggestio falsi, suppress the truth and suggest falsehoods. You have to read Wiley’s letter for what it does not say more than what it does say. It mentions “concerns raised by contributors” but does not mention that these contributors numbered four out of nearly 400 and that all the four were pro-Islamists whose main contention was the book was unfavourable to Islam. It does not mention how many people are doing the review, what their time frame is, and what they are asked to find out.

“Why do they not come out and say that what they are looking for is evidence of Christianity, enough to convict me. They do not mention the fact that it is the very four people who accused that ECC as ‘too Christian, too anti-Islamic’ and so on that are now conducting the review. The accusers are now judges.”

“This is probably the first instance of mass book-burning in the 21st century.”

The publishers maintain they are acting on concerns expressed by the very contributors Mr Kurian claims he is defending. In a statement they said: “After serious concerns were raised by contributors about the Introduction, which was written by Mr Kurian, we contacted members of the Editorial Board directly for feedback. We learned that Mr Kurian did not engage the Editorial Board in the manner we had agreed to at the beginning of the publishing process; therefore, we requested that they perform these responsibilities to ensure that the Encyclopedia meets Wiley-Blackwell’s standards of scholarship.”

Mr Kurian responded: “There is no mention of an editorial board in my contract, much less about a review by them. Harkin had mentioned in the beginning that these six people are ‘show horses, not workhorses’ brought in simply because every encyclopedia has to have a token editorial board. So to say that I did not ‘engage the editorial board in a manner agreed to’ is pure poppycock.

The editor-in-chief is now instituting two legal suits against Wiley-Blackwell. One is for a breach of contract on his own behalf, the other is a class action suit on behalf of nearly 400 unpaid contributors who worked for two years on the project, for the promise of a set of copies of the Encyclopedia and a free online subscription. The suit will seek a requirement for Wiley-Blackwell to publish the book as originally approved and printed, without change and without censorship of its Christian content, tone and character.



Contact our America Desk

Sign up for our free weekly Newsletters:
The Security Newsletter is a detailed analysis of ongoing conflict around the world.
The Newslist Newsletter is a round-up of the 10 main stories appearing on the site during the previous week.

To subscribe to the Security Newsletter, please click here: info@religiousintelligence.com

To subscribe to the Newslist Newsletter, please click here: info@religiousintelligence.com



Copyright © 2008 ReligiousIntelligence.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To request reprint rights please contact info@religiousintelligence.com