Author and the Thief: Two Faces of Professor Parrott

By Leslie Terebessy

Parrott was expected to be a reformer, too. He had a reputation of being a knowledgeable person. He wrote and published books that became references at Harvard, where he was even offered a job. But the subscriptions to the Institute's flagship journal went from thirteen in the first year to none seven years later. He could not succeed because he was trapped in tradition. He could not do what he was asked to do. He was a reincarnation of Faust and Fagin. A person could not carry on a conversation with him. After a few sentences, he would run out of things to say. He responded with ready-made phrases, like a parrot. That was "world renowned" Professor Parrott. He suffered from a paralysis of mind due to the unquestioning following of tradition. He reminded the Apprentice of Sid, the brother of Tom Sawyer, in the well-known book by Mark Twain. Sid was always ratting on Tom. Sid was the conformist; Tom was the authentic person. There is also Islam the religion of peace and Islam, the religion of war. The teaching of the conflict between the abode of peace and the abode of war was an early variant of the "clash of civilizations" thesis, and a falsification of the teaching of Islam. The proponents of aggressive jihad, under the influence of militant exegetes, wished to enlarge the "abode of peace" by way of war upon the "abode of war." A few jurists rejected the militant rendition of revelation. Militant exegetes, however, saw matters differently. They alleged that the peace verses were abrogated by the "verse of the sword." This was reinforced by bellicose traditions without foundation in revelation. In this way they transformed the religion of peace into a religion of war. Plagiarism in the Muslim world is hardly unheard of. It probably began around the time that the use of reason was equated with kufr or unbelief. Suyuti wrote The Author and the Thief. In it he distinguished between authors and literary thieves. Even al-Ghazali was taken to task for plagiarism. Parrott was always glancing over his shoulder, trying to see what people would think if he did or said so and so. He translated text from Arabic and published the translations as if he were the writer. He was entrusted with producing "fresh thinking." A staff spoke to him about his deficit of leadership, banging his fist on the table in the process. But Parrott could not provide what he did not have. He was not a trailblazer. He was a follower. Moreover, he tolerated and, by his acts, encouraged the appropriation of academic work by the staff. He would refer to them as "scholars of standing." Not everyone followed his "leadership" in this respect. There were exceptions. Before joining the Fabricatory, the Apprentice taught at an Islamic university. A colleague mentioned to the Apprentice that, after making a call for papers, a professor passed up a paper in Arabic the next day. "You can write a paper in a day?" He asked the "contributor" in disbelief. He became suspicious after he read a word in Arabic in the paper that he, an Arabic speaker, could not understand. He checked the paper for plagiarism. "It was copied A to Z," he told the Apprentice. The staff who plagiarised was appointed as Associate Professor. The Apprentice remarked to a friend, "This fellow should work in the photocopying centre. There he may copy all day. But he will not earn seven thousand monthly. He will be fortunate to make seven hundred." There was another person whose economics thesis was plagiarised. It was delivered to the Apprentice for editing, as the university planned to publish it. The Apprentice was surprised. He remembered when the "author" visited him with the first sentence of a book. The sentence was mangled. The Apprentice struggled with the sentence for a time but could make no sense of it. He told the writer to begin again. This person was awarded a degree for the plagiarised PhD thesis. These anecdotes reveal the extent of the corruption of the Muslim academia.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09F14SVWV
• ISBN13: 9798468244234
• Release Date: August 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 70 Pages
• Weight: 0.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"