{"id":911,"date":"2008-09-03T17:17:57","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T17:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/09\/canceled-muhammad-novel-finds.php"},"modified":"2008-09-03T17:17:57","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T17:17:57","slug":"canceled-muhammad-novel-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/canceled-muhammad-novel-finds","title":{"rendered":"Canceled Muhammad Novel Finds New Publisher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associated Press – September 3, 2008 <\/strong>
\nSPOKANE, Washington – 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.
\nGibson Square will publish the book next month in Great Britain, saying Wednesday that it is imperative that “The Jewel of Medina” by author Sherry Jones, of Spokane, not be spiked by fear of violence. Jones told The Associated Press that a U.S. publisher would also be announced shortly.
\nHer historical novel is about Aisha, the third wife of the prophet Muhammad.
\n“I was completely bowled over by the novel and the moving love story it portrays,” Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja said in a news release.
\n“‘The Jewel of Medina’ has become an important barometer of our time. The love story is somewhat known in the Muslim world but entirely unknown to Western readers,” Rynja said.
\nThe novel was originally to be published by Random House in August, and was to be a Book of the Month Club selection.
\nBut Random House, which paid Jones $100,000 for “The Jewel of Medina” and a second book, dropped the novel after concerns were raised by non-Muslims that the contents were explosive. Random House said in August that “credible and unrelated sources” had warned that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”
\nSince then, Jones and her agent, Natasha Kern, had been looking for publishers.
\n“It was crucially important that the publisher would have industry-leading distribution in Britain, which Gibson Square has,” Kern said. “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.”
\nGibson Square has published assassinated Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko’s
\n“Blowing up Russia,” and “Londonistan,” a book by Melanie Phillips on Britain’s refusal to stem homegrown fanaticism.
\nThe book will also be published in Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary, Jones said. In August, Serbian publisher BeoBook released “The Jewel of Medina” but then quickly withdrew it from stores after protests from local Islamic leaders who said it insulted Muhammad and his family.
\nFollowing the Random House decision, Salman Rushdie, whose “The Satanic Verses” led to a death decree in 1989 from Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that forced the author to live under police protection for years, said the publisher had allowed itself to be intimidated.
\n“I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have canceled another author’s novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals,” Rushdie said in an e-mail sent last month to the AP. “This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed.”
\nCopyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associated Press – September 3, 2008 SPOKANE, Washington – 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 Wednesday that it is imperative…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCanceled Muhammad Novel Finds New Publisher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/canceled-muhammad-novel-finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canceled Muhammad Novel Finds New Publisher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associated Press – September 3, 2008 SPOKANE, Washington – 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. 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