THE GUARDIAN: When publishers are too intimidated to print even novels that may offend, it shows how far we've lost our way on free speech
The firebomb attack this weekend on the publishing house Gibson Square in London was an assault on one of the bravest publishers in the business. Three men were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Saturday morning, suspected of attempting to set fire to the premises. Martin Rynja, who runs Gibson Square, is due to publish Sherry Jones's novel about Mohammed's wife Aisha, The Jewel of Medina, next month. Random House had pulled out of publishing the novel in August, stating that it had been advised that "the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community" and that "it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment".
This is not the first time that Rynja, owner of a small, independent publishing house, has shown himself to have more gumption and appetite for controversy than the big boys. Four years ago, he published Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud after Random House, once again, pulled out - this time for fear of libel action. He is also the publisher of OJ Simpson's If I Did It and Alexander Litvinenko's Blowing Up Russia.
Rynja's support for free speech is proving to be exceptional, as is his courage in standing up to bullies, at a time when other publishers will surrender at any intimation of legal action - particularly from litigious Saudis. Rynja, who trained as a lawyer, has shown that capitulation need not be inevitable. I can only hope that the shocking attack on his office will not dim his determination - but he will need support.
Random House dropped The Jewel of Medina in anticipation that offence might be caused in an extraordinary instance of pre-emptive censorship. Let's remember the similarly dire predictions that were made when Geert Wilders released his provocative film Fitna, which links Islam to terrorism - it was in fact a non-event.
Yet, in this instance, the row that ensued once the story broke about Sherry Jones's novel has, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, served to escalate the very scenario that Random House was apparently seeking to avert. It is most telling that they sent a work of fiction out to academics for approval in the first place - since when was a historian, however smart and literate, a suitable judge of whether a novel should or should not be published? Surely the only grounds for publishing a novel are whether it is of literary merit? One of the academics they consulted, Denise Spellberg, was reported as saying: "You can't play with a sacred history and turn it into soft-core pornography." Why not? This is one person's subjective view of a novel - it should not be grounds for censorship. Respect for Religion Now Makes Censorship the Norm >>> Jo Glanville | September 30, 2008
Jo Glanville is editor of Index on Censorship
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