Britain's Publishers Are Silenced by Islamist Bullies
TELEGRAPH BLOGS: Last October the London home of Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja was firebombed because they were planning to publish Sherry Jones's historical novel about the chap the BBC calls simply "the Prophet".

Guess what? The Jewel of Medina will not be published in Britain. The book is now effectively banned in the country of Tom Paine and George Orwell, not by Government order but by religious bullies. Jewel has already come out in seven other countries, including Denmark and Serbia, but Britain is considered too dangerous for anyone who offends Islam.

So even though Somali minicab driver Abbas Taj and two others have been convicted of the crime, they have still won, through intimidation. >>> Ed West | Monday, May 18, 2009

The Jewel of Medina: Publication Postponed Indefinitely in the UK
Images courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The controversial novel The Jewel of Medina may not be published in Britain after the firebombing of her publisher’s London home.

Author Sherry Jones had called on the British public to ensure that her book is published here, but Mandrake learns that the publication of The Jewel of Medina in this country has been postponed indefinitely.
The book concerns one of the prophet Mohammed’s wives.

Alan Jessop, the managing director of Compass, the external sales team of Jones’s publisher Gibson Square, says the publication is now in “suspended animation” after the attack on Martin Rynja’s house in London.

“He is in good spirits, but he is reflecting and taking advice on what the best way forward is,” says Jessop. “Everyone is going to have to be patient. This requires some careful thinking.”

The historical novel, in which Jones tells a fictionalised version of the life of Aisha, one of Mohammed’s wives, was due out in Britain on Oct 15. Its American publisher, Beaufort Books, said it intends to publish on that day.

Gibson Square’s London office remains closed. Jessop says Rynja will be talking to security forces, whose intelligence alerted them to the attack before it took place, and “people who might have an interest in the content of the book”. [Source: The Telegraph] By Tim Walker, Mandrake Editor | October 1, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
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Jo Glanville: Respect for Religion Now Makes Censorship the Norm
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

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

The Jewel of Medina: Prophet’s Wife Novel to Be Released in UK
THE GUARDIAN: A novel about the child bride of the prophet Muhammad is to be released in the UK next month, after its publication was cancelled by a US publisher.

The Jewel of the Medina is by first-time novelist Sherry Jones, and was published in the US last month by a division of Random House, but was pulled after scholars of Islam objected. At the time, Random House said it had received cautionary advice that it might be offensive to some Muslims and "could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment".

Yesterday, Jones' agent, Natasha Kern, said the rights had been bought in 10 countries, including by Gibson Square in the UK. In a statement, the firm's publisher, Martin Rynja, said: "I was completely bowled over by the novel and the moving love story it portrays. The Jewel of Medina has become an important barometer of our time. "

As the story of Muhammad's favourite wife, Aisha, the novel is criticised as being provocative and historically inaccurate by academics. Denise Spellberg, who teaches Islamic history at the University of Texas at Austin, described it as "soft core pornography".

But Random House's decision to pull the book sparked intense criticism from critics and literary bloggers, who compared the case to Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

Kern said that Gibson Square had been chosen because it of its past experience of controversial books - last year, it published OJ Simpson's hypothetical account of the murder of his ex-wife.

In August, a Serbian publisher quickly withdrew an edition of The Jewel of Medina from shops after protests from local Islamic leaders who said it insulted Muhammad and his family. [The Guardian] By Martin Hodgson | September 4, 2008

ZEIT ONLINE:
''Das Juwel von Medina'': Mohammed-Roman wird veröffentlicht: Ein umstrittener Mohammed-Roman, der in den USA und Serbien aus Angst vor Protesten von Muslimen zurückgezogen wurde, kommt in den britischen Buchhandel.

"Das Juwel von Medina" ("The Jewel of Medina") der US-Journalistin Sherry Jones über die junge Ehefrau des Propheten Mohammed soll im Oktober auf den Markt kommen, teilte der unabhängige Verlag Gibson Square mit. "In einer offenen Gesellschaft muss es ungeachtet der Furcht freien Zugang zu Literatur geben", sagte Verlagsmitarbeiter Martin Rynja. Andernfalls sei es ein "Rückfall ins finstere Mittelalter". Der Verlag ist für die Veröffentlichung politisch brisanter Bücher bekannt. >>> | 4. September 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
Controversial Book about Mohammed and Child Bride to Be Published: A controversial novel about the prophet Mohammed and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns that it would anger Muslims is to be printed by another publisher

…"that one of the biggest publishing houses in the world refuses to publish a book because of warnings is a sobering comment on the state of freedom of speech in the USA." – Sherry Jones, Washington >>> By Tom Peterkin | September 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>