Jewel of Medina's Publisher Firebombed

The London home of Martin Rynja, UK publisher of Sherry Jones' controversial Jewel of Medina, was firebombed on Saturday. Three men have been arrested.

The Literary Saloon calls the attack a self-fulfilling prohecy and says :

Sadly, of course, it's all the press attention rather than the book itself (which surely these morons hadn't read, seeing as it hasn't been published yet) that led to this outrageous act; sadly, it forces the entire literary community (and, one hopes, everyone else) to rally around what sounds like a pretty mediocre and forgettable piece of writing (at least if the limited excerpts available online are anything to judge by). But the principle is far, far more important, and while there are apparently some who believe this dead-for-over-a-thousand-years lady's virtue is worth defending at all costs, no one should buy that.

In a very interesting piece in the Times today, Kenan Malik argues that :

Rushdie's critics lost the battle but won the war.

Malik also quotes Sherry Jones (right) as saying :

If Random House had simply published my book I don't think there would have been any trouble. The real problem is not that Muslims are offended but that people think they will be. I was disgusted by the inflammatory language Random House used to describe the potential Muslim reaction.

I think she's absolutely right!

In the Service of Truth?

More on The Rose of Medina (about which I am already heartily sick but whether we want it or not, the debate is thrust upon us). Jordan sent me this link to an interview from altmuslim with author Sherry Jones in which she explains :

I did all this in the service of a truth.

As Jordan said in his Facebook message :

I think we can give the lady the benefit of the doubt when she says she wrote the novel out of respect. But still, even if there was no malice intended, it was a stupid thing to do, unless she lives in a cave and knows nothing about the sensitivities of Muslims.

The novel has now found a UK publisher.

More Jewel of Medina Kerfuffle

The latest in the saga of The Jewel of Medina.

The Serbian publishers of the book were forced to pull copies after protests.

A Danish publisher hopes to publish it.

An American book prize, The Langum Charitable Trust, has decided to blacklist Random House until the book is published. In a statement, founder David Langum said :

No one should expect that publishers print every piece of trash that comes into their offices, and The Jewel of Medina may be neither good literature nor good history. ... That is beside the point since Random House had already paid a $100,000 advance, arranged for book club publication, and foreign publication. It changed course and self-censored solely on the political grounds of fear of offending Muslims or fomenting violence. ... That form of cowardice will only lead to more and more of this form of self-censorship and is an attack on the integrity of literary publication. ... We must stand up to it, in whatever ways are available to us. The form that was available to our small foundation was to put Random House out of the running for our prizes.

I agree with what Langham says about self-censorship and cowardice and how we musn't bend to it - but must say I would prefer to be fighting on behalf of a novel which was better written!

Fear and Censorship

The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Asra Q. Nomani in the Asian Wall Street Journal examines a particularly worrying case of censorship.

Publisher Random House's decided to pull the plug on historical romance The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones (for which it had paid an advance of $100,000) after it received cautionary advice came from University of Texas Professor Denise Spellberg that it could :

... incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

Nomani says :

This saga upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way. ... Literature moves civilizations forward, and Islam is no exception. There is in fact a tradition of historical fiction in Islam, including such works as "The Adventures of Amir Hamza," an epic on the life of Muhammad's uncle.

Jones said that she was devastated after the book got spiked:

I wanted to honor Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored -- silenced -- by historians.

Geoffrey Robertson QC,who acted for Rushdie in the Satanic Verses case calls for compensation in the Guardian and says :

We can't be overcritical of American publishers for cowering under terrorist threats. ... all who care about free speech have a duty to make this sort of censorship counterproductive. Random House should pay this author substantial compensation, and the book should be placed on a website so everyone can read it.

Ah well, let's start with the Prologue to the novel which you can find here.

And there's another intriguing "is it censorship, or isn't it?" case in the Guardian today. Max Malik (left), claims that his novel The Butterfly Hunter was not submitted for final adjudication of the Muslim Writers award because of its controversial subject matter.

He was told that his novel had been dropped off the list "in error". Something that I find hard to believe given that he won top prize in the award last year! (Or if it was a genuine mistake, it indicates mindblowing incompetence!)