I finally got an email from Alasdair Palmer helping explain why his fascinating piece in London’s Sunday Telegraph on the radicalism of some Muslims in Britain was pulled from the web "for legal reasons" and then removed altogether. (Not his fault: My original email got swallowed up by the Telegraph’s dreadful email system). The explanation is relatively benign, it turns out, according to Palmer:
"The reason why the article was taken off the website is that there are alot of translations of the Koran which use the title "The Noble Koran". I failed to specify that the version Dr Sookhdeo was referring to when he talked about anti- Christian and Jewish passages and the updating of weaponry etc, was the Saudi-sponsored "Interpretation of the Meanings of The Noble Qur’an in the English language, a summarised version of At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih Al-Bukhari, summarized in one volume", by Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali & Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan of the Islamic University, Medina. Published by Darussalam, Riyadh, 1996.
Quite a mouthful. Anyway, a guy called Abdalhaqq Bewley has published a translation called "The Noble Koran" which does NOT have the offending passages. He wrote in, and threatened to sue on grounds that we had defamed him and his translation. The lawyer and the then editor, Sarah Sands, decided discretion was the better part of valour, and took the piece off the website. We published a letter from Mr Bewley in full, apologised to him, and he was satisfied – that seems to be the end of it.
I have suggested that we put the article BACK on the website with the correct title of the relevant translation of the Koran … Perhaps, eventually, it will reappear in a modified form."
Let’s hope so.
The Dish 