"The Australian" reports that Scholastic Australia has dropped plans to publish John Dale's children's thriller, Army of the Pure. The paper is reporting that the publisher decided on this course of action after it found that booksellers and librarians would not stock the book because the villian is a Muslim terrorist. Excuse me?
Comparisons are being made to Andrew McGahan's Underground and Richard Flanagan's The Unknown Terrorist, both of which feature terrorists who "are portrayed as victims driven to extreme acts by the failings of the West." They seem to be doing pretty well at present. This story is being picked up in other places around the world.
