Kuru said he was aware of the allegations levelled against his book, titled “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison”, including that it lacked “Islamic references”.

“If they read the book, they will be able to see the footnotes, bibliography and the analysis provided,” he told FMT after a hastily organised launch of the translated version of his book here today.

The director of Islamic and Arabic studies at the San Diego State University said he was glad the book launch went smoothly despite some hiccups after the initial launch at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia was called off.

Following the cancellation, the think tank Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) stepped in to help get the book, which has been translated to Malay, launched at the University of Nottingham campus at Jalan Conlay here.

Among those present were former Batu MP Tian Chua, political analyst Tajuddin Rasdi and activist Hishamuddin Rais.

Kuru said his critics did not have to lobby for the book launch to be cancelled.

“If they think that the book is irrelevant to Malaysia, they can ignore it, but if the people find it relevant, nobody should stop it from being read,” he said.

IRF director Farouk Musa defended Kuru’s book, saying the accusations levelled against the academic were unfounded.

“Those conservatives were attacking him, saying he doesn’t know anything about Islam and that he’s just a geopolitical scientist, but I’m saying that he’s very fluent in Arabic and he reads from all primary sources, so how can they say he doesn’t know anything about Islam?

“I have seen his references, all accusations are unfounded,” Farouk said.