A lawyer has said that Random House US should pay substantial compensation to Sherry Jones, whose novel about Muhammad's child bride Aisha was dropped by the publisher over fears it could provoke terrorist attacks. Jones's The Jewel of Medina was described as potentially more controversial than both Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses and the Danish newspaper cartoons of Muhammad.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, whose latest book The Tyrannicide Brief is published by Random House US and who was under terrorist threat whilst acting for Rushdie, said: We can't be overcritical of American publishers for cowering under terrorist threats. After all, the Guardian, like every other British newspaper, lacked the gumption to publish the Danish cartoons. But 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.

In a statement, Random House said: We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, even those that may be construed as offensive by some. However, a publisher must weigh that responsibility against others that it also bears, and in this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House Inc, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the book.

Sherry Jones said she was hopeful of finding a new publisher shortly. I'm glad the story has come out because now any publisher who takes it on will do so with eyes wide open. I'm hoping to find someone who is as passionate as I am and my agent is.

Sir Salman Rushdie has accused his publisher of censorship at the same time as trying to prevent the release of a book that criticises him.

The novelist, who spent nearly a decade under a fatwa from the Iranian government after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, attacked Random House for pulping a historical novel about the Prophet Mohamed for fear of offending Muslims.

Sherry Jones's debut novel, The Jewel Of Medina, about the Prophet Mohamed and his child bride, was due for release this month. But Random House said credible and unrelated sources had warned that the book could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

Rushdie's very public intervention comes at a time when he is engaged in a legal battle to amend the content of a book that criticised him.

On Her Majesty's Service by Ron Evans, who was part of Rushdie's police protection team, makes claims – all of which are denied by the author – that he was imprisoned by guards who got so fed up with his attitude that they locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and all went to the local pub for a pint or two. When they were suitably refreshed, they came back and let him out. Evans, who contends that police nicknamed Sir Salman "Scruffy" because of his unkempt appearance, also makes several other allegations.

Rushdie denied there was any contradiction in his actions, saying: [Sherry Jones's book] is a work of fiction. Ron Evans's book is not, and it contains a very large number of provable lies and complete absurdities which were defamatory not just about me but my son's mother, Elizabeth West, the Metropolitan Police and people including John Major and Norman Tebbit.

Under pressure from Sir Salman's lawyer, Evans is believed to have amended his most contentious chapters.

A Belgrade publisher is to withdraw from bookstores a novel that the Islamic Community in Serbia has described as offensive to Muslims.

Aleksandar Jasic, the director of the Beobuk publishing house also apologised to Muslims for distributing the book entitled The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, which details the life of Ajsa, one of Prophet Mohammad’s wives, who he married when she was 11.

The decision followed a strong protest by the leader of the Islamic Community in Serbia, Muarem Zukorlic who compared the book with the Mohammed cartoons controversy of 2006.

It is a book that absolutely does not refrain from desecrating something that is considered by all Muslims as untouchable, Zukorlic said.

The book was to have its global debut in Serbia.

Update: The Jewel in the UK?

The Jewel of Medina was set to be released in the UK on 12th August but this date seems to have come and gone yet according to Amazon, the book has yet to actually be released.

The Right Reverand Nutter Patrick O'Donoghue, the Bishop of Lancaster, claimed casual recourse to abortion had cheapened the value of human life in the eyes of the public over the last four decades.

He said he was convinced that the 1967 Abortion Act was a major cause of widespread violence among young people.

All of us have seen in the news the frequent reports of young people killing strangers in the street, killing fathers defending their property, killing people with learning difficulties, killing other young people who are different to them, said the bishop in a report Fit for Mission? Church.

For 41 years we've lived in a state-sponsored culture of death that has killed five million children, and we're now surprised that some of the surviving children have turned out violent with no regard for the sanctity of life?, he spouted:

If a society holds human life so cheaply is it any surprise that young people will also hold life cheaply and engage in violence?

He continued that if the State was seen sponsoring crimes against life is it any wonder that criminality in general thrives, and seeks to take advantage of the coarsening and darkening of conscience?

A Danish publisher is in negotiations to buy Sherry Jones's novel about the child bride of Muhammad, which was dropped by Random House in America and pulled from bookshops in Serbia.

The Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha, one of Muhammad's wives, from the age of six to 18 when Muhammad dies. It was bought by Random House US for a reported advance of $100,000, but then dropped after the publisher was told by academics and security experts that publication was potentially more risky than Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the Danish publication of cartoons of Muhammad.

Now small Danish publisher Trykkefrihedsselskabets Library (Free Speech Library) is in negotiations with Jones's agent over publication of The Jewel of Medina in Denmark. Co-owner Helle Merete Brix said that the fact that Random House was prepared to pay $100,000 for the book showed its quality, and that she was determined not to bow to any censorship. I think that whether you are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or atheist you have to be able to bear insults. You can't say 'I'm a Muslim, and that means I should be above criticism'. You can freely insult Jesus Christ, you can mock other religions.

Brix said she felt it was deep in the mentality of Danish people that we will not tolerate people saying 'you can't say or publish that'…There is a growing awareness in Denmark that we have to keep it the bastion of free speech that it has been for many years.

A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims has found a new English-language publisher.

Gibson Square will publish the book next month in Great Britain, saying that it is imperative that The Jewel of Medina by author Sherry Jones, of Spokane, not be spiked by fear of violence.

Jones' agent, Natasha Kern said: It was crucially important that the publisher would have industry-leading distribution in Britain, which Gibson Square has. And it was also important that it had an excellent track record on handling books in a good way that were provocative and had achieved some degree of controversy beyond the publishing community.

Jones told The Associated Press that a U.S. publisher also would be announced shortly. The book also will be published in Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary, Jones said.

The publisher that took on O.J. Simpson's If I Did It after it was dropped amid public outrage has signed another rejected project - Sherry Jones' The Jewel of Medina.

The book about a wife of the prophet Muhammad was dropped by Random House, its American publisher, out of concern that it would anger Muslims.

We read the book, we loved it, says Eric Kampmann, owner of Beaufort Books.

Jones' novel should come out by mid-October, Kampmann said. She will also publish a second book with Beaufort, a sequel to Jewel of Medina.

Jones' book is also being published in England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary.

Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina, recently withdrawn, will be returned to Belgrade’s bookstores.

The publisher said that readers’ reactions were positive and that the book would soon be published in most European countries.

Beobook publishing company director Aleksandar Jasic explained the u-turn by saying that it would be good for Serbia’s Muslim community, who fiercely opposed the book’s publishing, for the readers, who are the only ones competent to judge, and for the publisher.

He explained that despite the fact that the book was withdrawn from the stores in July, copies were still available in the streets at double prices, adding that soon after the publisher dropped the book, pirate versions started to sell Beobook name.

Serbia’s Islamic Community states that it is an insult and the sacrilege to write about the Islamic prophet outside the frames of Quran, emphasizing that writing about any of Mohammed's' wives – and there were twelve – is an offense to every Muslim, who considered these women to be their mothers.

Ombudsman Saša Jankovic was the only state official to react, by saying after separate meetings with Mufti Zukorlic and the publisher that in Serbia, books are written and published freely. In a public statement Jankovic said that everyone had an obligation to respect human rights and freedoms, and that the state’s role was to protect and to enable human rights to be implemented.

The Jewel of Medina is to be published in the U.S., Italy, Germany and Hungary, and it is expected that by late this year and early 2009, it will be printed in Russia, Brazil, Macedonia, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Poland, while negotiations are ongoing with publishers in Sweden and the Netherlands.

The London home of the publisher of a new novel that gives a fictionalised account of the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with his child bride, Aisha, was firebombed yesterday, hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics.

A petrol bomb is believed to have been thrown through the door of Martin Rynja's house in Islington's Lonsdale Square, which also doubles as the headquarters of his publishing company, Gibson Square. Three men have been arrested on terrorism charges.

The Observer has learned that police told Rynja late on Friday night to leave his property. His company recently made headlines when it announced it was to publish The Jewel of Medina.

Written by US journalist Sherry Jones, the book was due to have been published in August by US giant Random House. But amid fears for people's safety, the company halted publication.

Rynja bought the UK publishing rights earlier this month. The Jewel of Medina has become an important barometer of our time, Rynja said at the time. As an independent publishing company, we feel strongly that we should not be afraid of the consequences of debate.

Yesterday the Metropolitan Police confirmed that three men had been arrested in connection with the incident in Lonsdale Square. Two men aged 22 and 30 were stopped by armed officers in the street outside the property and a third man, aged 40, was arrested near Angel tube station. Police have begun searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.

The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, and last night were being questioned at a central London police station, a Met spokesman said. Scotland Yard confirmed that a small fire inside the property had been extinguished. At this early stage it is being linked with the arrests, the spokesman said.

Islamic terrorists have warned of a wave of reprisals over a controversial book about the Prophet Mohammed after the home of its publisher was firebombed.

Hardline clerics said that further attacks would be "inevitable" if publication of the novel, The Jewel of Medina, goes ahead as planned next month.

Police moved in to arrest three men moments after a fire broke out at the London home and office of Martin Rynja in the early hours of Saturday. The attack came days after Mr Rynja's company, Gibson Square, bought the rights to the book by the American writer Sherry Jones.

The radical cleric Anjem Choudhary said the book was an insult to the Prophet Mohammed's honour, something he said would warrant a "death penalty" under Sharia law. He said he was not surprised at all by the attack and warned of possible further reprisals over the book: It is clearly stipulated in Muslim law that any kind of attack on his honour carries the death penalty.

Speaking from Lebanon, the radical cleric Omar Bakri, added: If anybody attacks that man I cannot myself condemn it.

A novelist yesterday urged the British people to stand by the principle of free speech to ensure that her book about the Prophet Mohammed was published here.

US writer Sherry Jones spoke out after the London home of her publisher Martin Rynja was firebombed.

You have to ask whether a thug with a gun or petrol bomb should be allowed to censor the people of Great Britain, Jones, said at her home in Spokane, Washington state.

This is about the future of free speech. Is it the case that there are now some books which cannot be published in Britain? My publisher cannot fight this all by himself. I hope the people of Britain will support him. He is a courageous man.

Rynja is in hiding with an armed police guard following the strike by suspected Muslim extremists at the weekend. However, he still intends to publish The Jewel Of Medina - a fictional account of the Prophet's child bride.

Jones's agent, Natasha Kern said: I have been in contact with him and I understand that he plans to go ahead and publish the book Martin is a person of great principle and integrity who believes in free speech.

See also article from guardian.co.uk by Jo Glanville

When publishers are too intimidated to print even novels that may offend, it shows how far we've lost our way on free speech.

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.

This whole affair - from Random House's decision to drop the book, to the attack this weekend - is evidence of a worrying trend. Twenty years since The Satanic Verses was published, in the 60th-anniversary year of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, we are facing a crisis for free expression. Yet the threat comes not only from those who commit acts of violence, but from those who ostensibly support human rights.

Respect for religion has now become acceptable grounds for censorship; even the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has declared that free speech should respect religious sensibilities, while the UN human rights council passed a resolution earlier this year condemning defamation of religion and calling for governments to prohibit it. As the writer Kenan Malik has so astutely pointed out, In the post-Rushdie world, speech has come to be seen not intrinsically as a good but inherently as a problem because it can offend as well as harm ... Censorship, and self-censorship, Malik observes, have become the norm. What we have seen, over the past two decades, is an insidious new argument for curbing free speech become increasingly acceptable.

Plans for the British publication of a novel about a young wife of the Prophet Muhammad are stalled following arson at the publisher's London office, a sales representative for the company was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The report came a day after the US publisher of the book, Beaufort Books, announced that it had closed its offices as a "precautionary action" but intended to go ahead with its publication of The Jewel of Medina next month.

On Tuesday, a report on The Bookseller magazine Web site said British publication plans had been thrown into doubt after a weekend arson attack at an office of publisher Gibson Square.

The Bookseller quoted Alan Jessop of Compass, the publisher's sales representative, as saying he had discussed the situation with publisher Martin Rynja.

He is in good spirits, but has put publication in suspended animation while he reflects and takes advice on what the best foot forward is, Jessop was quoted as saying.

Waterstone's, a major British chain of booksellers, said it had not decided what it would do if the book was published.

The company said that the safety of customers and employees was paramount and that it was talking to the supplier of The Jewel of Medina regarding publication, but would not comment further until the book's status was clear.

Britain's police have been accused of misusing the country's terrorism laws against Muslims after three men were charged under criminal law for firebombing a publisher in north London.

What is surprising is that they were held under anti-terror legislation for almost a week and then charged under fire arm offences, Muslim News editor Ahmed Versi said: It seems anti- terror laws are being used as fishing expedition.

Ali Beheshti, Abrar Mirza and Abbas Taj, all from London, were due to appear in court Friday after being charged with conspiring to damage the home of a man publishing an American novel about Mohammed's young wife.

The men, charged with conspiring without lawful excuse to damage the premises between September 8 and 27, could have only been held by police for a maximum of three days under criminal law.

Versi condemned the petrol bomb attack carried out last Saturday but said that the case was another evidence that the police are misusing the anti terror legislation whenever Muslims are involved in committing criminal offences.

The police told the Muslim News that the arrests were the culmination of investigation of the three trying to set fire to the property and other information received deemed to be suitable under Terrorism Act 2000 and it was intelligence led.

The controversy surrounding Sherry Jones's The Jewel of Medina, a novel in which the youngest wife of the Muslim prophet Muhammad tells the story of their marriage from her perspective, intensified last week, after an attempt to firebomb the book's British publisher created momentary uncertainty about whether that edition would go forward (it will) and raised security concerns at the offices of Beaufort Books, the novel's American publisher.

Ultimately, Beaufort decided to move the publication date up so that it would be available in bookstores starting today. There's a lot of talk about what is and isn't in the book by people who haven't read it, Jones explained: Until people read it, the dialogue can't move on. The discussion cannot progress.

Jones Said: I was just fascinated by her tale. I was drawn to her immediately; I felt empathy and compassion for her. She began writing the novel that became The Jewel of Medina in an effort to better understand A'isha: I asked myself, how does a young girl whose life is completely controlled by men transform into the leader and warrior and scholar that she became? So I gave her obstacles and temptations in the course of imagining how she would grow.

The problem (as we see it) stems from the flagrant mischaracterization of the novel by Islamic studies professor Denise Spellberg, whom Ballantine Books had approached hoping for a blurb, as soft core pornography and anti-Muslim propaganda; Spellberg's zealous efforts to alert Muslims to the book's impending publication were particularly effective in giving the public a distorted impression of its contents.

And we do mean distorted: Now that we've read the novel for ourselves, and seen precisely two paragraphs that might be construed as sexually explicit (and that's being extremely generous to one of them), Jones deserves a public apology from Spellberg for her public misrepresentations.

 

The UK launch of controversial novel The Jewel of Medina about the Prophet Mohammed has been postponed.

American writer Sherry Jones has also delayed a three-day publicity tour of the UK for her book scheduled for next week.

The Jewel of Medina was due to be released by Gibson Square Publishers this month but two weeks ago the home of Martin Rynja, who works for the publishing house, was targeted in a suspected petrol bomb attack.

A spokesman for Gibson Square Publishers said today: We respect Sherry Jones's decision. In her view the best thing to do is to postpone her visit and the publishing of the novel in Britain.

Last week at Borders, the UK and Irish bookstore chain owned by Risk Capital Partners, we received several threats from an extremist Islamic group saying we would suffer if we sold the controversial novel The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones in our shops.

This follows the fire-bombing of the publisher's offices in London last month. So, assuming the work is made available here, should we be scared and refuse to stock the book? Or should we take a stand in the name of freedom of expression and sell it regardless?

...

Yet modern corporations are described as having many stakeholders - some of whom may feel that getting into conflicts over theoretical concepts such as liberty is not worth the effort. They could ask: is it right to expose shareholders, advisers or employees to hazards such as terrorism? After all, a business is not a political or philosophical undertaking - it is an enterprise organised to profit its owners.

But if corporate cowardice spreads, boardrooms will become the weak underbelly of the west, inspiring every lunatic sect simply to aim at the executive suite because they know the directors there have no appetite for a fight.

So responsible corporate leaders probably have no choice. Capitalism is successful in democratic nations where there is respect for the rule of law and free speech. Wherever there are illegal overtures made towards business, there is a moral obligation to resist their demands, and if possible seek the help of the authorities in protecting those in the front line who are at risk.

...Read leader

A presumably muslim minicab driver has been found guilty of helping try to firebomb the home of a publisher days before the release of a novel about the marital life of the Prophet Mohamed.

Abbas Taj was waiting in his car as two accomplices poured diesel through the letter box of the four-storey home of Martin Rynja, who had vowed to publish The Jewel of Medina after the American-based giant Random House postponed publication due to concerns that the book would lead to acts of violence by Muslim extremists.

Taj arrived outside the home of the publisher in Islington, at 2am on 27 September last year and watched Abrar Mirza and Ali Beheshti try to set light to the house, which is also the publisher's office.

The three men are to be sentenced in July.

Aren’t you scared? I get asked this question all the time, most recently in the wake of the news that three radical extremist Muslim men conspired to set fire to the home office of Gibson Square, the London publisher that had been set to publish my novel The Jewel of Medina last October.
...

Whether or not my book is respectful, however, has little to do with the real issue here. For, although the extremists lost in court, they have apparently won where it really counts — in the UK’s book stores.

After Gibson Square’s publisher announced, a couple of weeks after the arson attempt, that he was indefinitely postponing publication of The Jewel of Medina — following in the footsteps of Random House in the US — I awarded world English publication rights to Beaufort Books, my US publishing house whose publisher and small staff have supported my book unwaveringly, despite hate mail, lawsuit threats, and Anjem Choudary’s own assertion that not only I, but my publishers, might deserve to die.

Beaufort publisher Eric Kampmann and associate publisher Margot Atwell headed to the London Book Fair in April with a full display of The Jewel of Medina and confidence that they would find the right distributor to supply stores in the UK with the book. But — no. Everyone, it seems, is too afraid.

...

These three Muslim thugs who tried to torch the British people’s right to read a book would be easy to shrug off as isolated cases, as simple bullies. The fact is, though, that soon after that attack, extremist groups in the UK exerted an organised effort to keep The Jewel of Medina out of British bookstores. Luke Johnson, chairman of Borders UK, wrote in the Financial Times online that his company had received threats that it would “suffer” if Borders UK sold The Jewel of Medina.

Surely, in a civilised society, we cannot allow thuggish behaviour to intimidate us. Otherwise we could all end up being tyrannised by violent and vocal minorities, cowed into submission in pursuit of a comfortable life. How then would humanity and invention progress? Mr Johnson wrote.

...Read full article

The muslim arsonists who tried to burn down the house of the publisher of The Jewel of Medina have each been sentenced to 4 years, 6 months in jail.

Sentencing Ali Beheshti and two accomplices, Mrs Justice Rafferty told them: If you choose to live in this country, you live by its rules. There is no such thing as "a la carte citizenship" and, in your case, there is no such thing as "a la carte obedience" to the law.

Beheshti, a follower of hate cleric Abu Hamza, poured diesel through the letterbox of Martin Rynja's £2.5million house and set it alight to punish him for agreeing to release The Jewel of Medina, a fictional account of the Prophet's child bride.

Last September, with accomplices Abrar Mirza and Abbas Taj he attacked the five-storey home and office of Rynja in Islington, North London. A small fire began but nobody was hurt because police and fire crews arrived in time to smash down the door and put it out.