'The Jewel of Medina': Anatomy of a Ruckus
By CARLIN ROMANO

All happy book publications are alike — the book finally comes out. All unhappy book publications are unhappy in their own ways — except when they involve Islam. Then the story follows a familiar plot.

The latest uproar, over the novel The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, a journalist who lives in Spokane, Wash., erupted this summer. It's not yet an international cause c้l่bre, because the manuscript remains accessible only to those who got early galleys.

It was 2002 when Jones began writing her historical fiction about A'isha, betrothed to the Prophet Muhammad at age 6 or 7, who became the third of his nine wives and a major proselytizer for Islam after his death. As part of her research, Jones read scores of books on Islam and A'isha, and studied Arabic. A tentative publication date of August 12 had been set for the book, the first of a two-book contract worth a reported $100,000. Jones started prepping for an eight-city book tour.

But in May, Random House, the book's publisher through its Ballantine imprint, withdrew it. Remembering Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988), a novel whose irreverence toward Islam led to the murder of the book's Japanese translator and the famous fatwa against Rushdie by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the publishing house said it had received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of the book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

Random House then consulted "security experts as well as scholars of Islam," and said it decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers, and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel. The author and Ballantine subsequently agreed to terminate the agreement."

So, just in time for the American Library Association's annual "Banned Books Week" that begins September 27, we face another brouhaha in which principles of criticism and censorship get as foggy as seventh-century history.

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Q. Nomani, author of Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam (HarperOne, 2006), provided the contretemps with its strongest push in an August 6 opinion piece in the Journal, "You Still Can't Write About Muhammad," which gave an inside blow-by-blow of what had happened thus far.

The trouble began in April, when Ballantine, in a standard procedure, sent advance copies of the novel to potential blurb writers, including Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. Jones cited Spellberg's book, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr (Columbia University Press, 1994), in her bibliography.

Spellberg, who subsequently called the book a "very ugly, stupid piece of work" in an interview with Nomani, phoned Shahed Amanullah, editor of a Muslim Web site and a guest lecturer in her classes, to alert him to its existence. Amanullah told Nomani that Spellberg was "upset" and felt the book "made fun of Muslims and their history." Amanullah then e-mailed a Listserv of graduate students in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. That provoked a wave of blogging, including descriptions of the novel as "a new attempt to slander the Prophet of Islam" and strategies to ensure that "the writer withdraws this book from the stores."

Spellberg also phoned Jane N. Garrett, an editor at Random House, where Spellberg has her own contract to publish a book provisionally titled Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an. Nomani quoted from an e-mail message Garrett sent to fellow executives about Spellberg's call: "She thinks there is a very-real possibility of major danger for the building and staff and widespread violence. Denise says it is 'a declaration of war … explosive stuff … a national-security issue.' Thinks it will be far more controversial than the Satanic Verses and the Danish cartoons. Does not know if the author and Ballantine folks are clueless or calculating, but thinks the book should be withdrawn ASAP."

After "much deliberation," according to Random House's statement, it was.

More at: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=pbbrh8f3wd9vf5qtpgb1th1q368dtbtj

Heaven forbid that a topic gets rationally discussed and points of views considered.

__________________
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Most likely, the result of a catfight between Denise and Sherry.

__________________
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09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

So in 10 or 20 years (5years ?) when Islam surpasses Christianity as the dominant religion in countries-capable-of-publishing-lots-of-books, will it **then** be ok to make fun of Islam (and anti-christian books will get smacked down) ?

?

=)

-John

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Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Islam is one of the big three world religions, and has been around for 1300 years or so. Is their religion not strong enough to take a little kidding? If not, it's time it made itself a little nest on the scrap heap of history.

Book suppression because it might upset some radical cultists? This country has no spine. No wonder these Still Living in the Seventh Century Wonders can attack us with impunity.
.

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My thoughts exactly!

All this radical BS, fatwahs against Rushide, the cartoon crap, and now this makes me think that Islam is not the best of the best it claims to be.
If it was, it would be able to laught off any of these so called attacks.
I can only imagine if Christians did they same thing today...

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This article misleadingly quotes Sherry as a proffessor of History whereas if you look her up on UC Austin's website you find that she has a heavy islamic/pc/feminist slant.

Seems to me just another example of a spineles publisher caving before a strident pc freak.

- Peter.

Education: PhD, 1989, Columbia University

Research interests:
Medieval Islamic history, religion, and gender, Islamic historiography, and Islam in Europe and America.

Courses taught:
History of the Middle East from 570 to 1453, Gender in Islamic History, Islamic Spain and North Africa, Islam in Europe and America, Islamic Historiography.

Geographic Area(s) of Study: Middle East

Thematic Field(s): Gender, Sexuality and Family; Medieval and Early Modern Worlds; Race, Ethnicity and Nation; Religion and Culture

Recent Publications:
Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of Aisha bint Abi Bakr (Columbia University Press, 1994); "Writing the Unwritten Life of the Islamic Eve: Menstruation and the Demonization of Motherhood," International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 (1996): 305-324; "Inventing Matamoras: Gender and the Forgotten Islamic Past in the United States of America," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 25 (2004): 148-164; "Could a Muslim Be President? An Eighteenth-Century Constitutional Debate," Eighteenth-Century Studies 39 (2006): 485-506.

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1971 108 280S

However, since the book is in her subject and she was cited by the author, it made sense for the publisher to send a copy to her. What makes no sense is her reaction... If she did not like the book, either don't comment on it or pan it ina review - don't threaten the lives of the publishers and call the book a "National Security Incident"

Makes ME want to read it and I hate books like these

__________________
"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

They are all crazy, its a dangerious group. They want it to be the 7th century again, very much a threat to the modern world.

__________________
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That is why I was saying it sounds more like a catfight between those two. Perhaps Sherry was trying to one-up Denise, and Denise fought back by dissing her book in the worst way. (why is it that so many women are never happy with just a kick to the groin, and instead have to torture, mutilate, fold and spindle, before they are satisfied that they have gotten even?)

__________________
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

A publisher decided not to publish a book. Isn't that up to them?

__________________
1984 300TD

Of course it is. As was pointed out in the article. Also acknowledged in the article was that the author found another publisher. The article was concerned with the circumstances that appear to have led to those subsequent events.

B

I don't understand the censorship label in the original article. The book wasn't censored.

__________________
1984 300TD

It depends on what the definition of censorship is. The strict definition, as acknowledged in the article, is suppression of information by the government. Clearly this was not censorship in that sense.

The author argues that there is another sense in which censorship plays a role and that is through intimidation. The author argues that in this instance the reviewer, through unethical behavior, caused the contracted publisher to fear for the safety of its employees and facilities. Thus, by declining publication, the publisher was essentially intimidated from freedom of the press.

B

Sounds to me like the unethical reviewer sent her opinions onto some people who decided to get upset without reading the book. If the company is not willing to stand for its freedoms and instead react to some small population's criticism, then the company is the censor, not the criticizing population.
This is the same kind of thinking that caused the huge overblown Janet Jackson wardrobe BS, and gets companies to tap phones for the government without regard to legality. Any tiny whiff of any sort of displeasure has companies voluntarily pulling ads or products.
In that respect, I agree that companies are self censoring today far more than ever in response to minor or even perceived criticism.

__________________
1984 300TD