Excerpt:
A fascinating case of Christophobia is detailed in the March, 2009, edition of the monthly arts review, The New Criterion. In their Notes & Comments section, the editors chronicle a cautionary tale that recalls in its implications the Nazi book-burnings of works by Jewish writers in the 1930s. The story begins in 2006 with a contract signed between George Thomas Kurian, an experienced encyclopedist of high repute, with the eminent English academic publishing house, Wiley-Blackwell to produce a multi-volume "Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization."
For two years Kurian toiled at this massive task with the help of almost 400 contributors. Over and above the 4,000 entries, covering everything from Bach to Transubstantiation, the reader is introduced, according to the editor's foreword, to a "panoptic" exploration of theology and history, but also to the influence of Christianity on civilization in all its permutations: Music, law, architecture and so forth.
Rebecca Harkin, Wiley's religion editor, was delighted with the result of Kurian's "tremendous undertaking" and said so to him in a rapturous e-mail. The book was scheduled for publication in 2009; early feedback posted on Amazon.com was enthusiastic. With the outlook sunny, Ms. Harkin launched her baby into the world at the November, 2008, annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion.
Then the proverbial ordure hit the fan. Four (please note: only four of many editors and the aforementioned 400 contributors) of the encyclopedia's editorial board members wrote a litany of complaints to Harkin and Kurian. They objected to the "highly negative, even racist characterization of Islam" in the encyclopedia's introduction. They felt Kurian's "malignant assumptions" did "nothing to advance scholarly understanding" and demanded Kurian modify his introduction "to remove the offence thrust at Islam and other religions and to moderate the tone of confrontation and polemic."