Well Random House of course is free to do what they wish. But I think the article speaks for itself.

This has become part of the larger problem and is what comes of rolling over in the past, and allowing an exclusivity to be built where as, some are now accorded defacto veto power over literature and freedom of speech.
The mere threat now is enough, even in the absence of a concrete particular threat, just a feeling. And yes, their feelings as to what this would stir are more than likely correct. But where does it end? It doesn't, Each and every time something like this ocurs, it lowers the bar for the next case.

This is one of those cases I think were moderate Muslims need to speak up.
Each time something like this occurs, and someone makes a remark like; "yeah there’s your religion of peace", I would say they lose the right to be outraged. They are ceding the discussion and the ground to the fundamentalists who are it appears speaking for many more than it appears, absent their voices. What else is there to conclude?



You Still Can't Write
About Muhammad
By ASRA Q. NOMANI
August 6, 2008; Page A15

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.


It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors. In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

After consulting security experts and Islam scholars, Mr. Perry said the company 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."

This saga upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way. "I'm devastated," Ms. Jones told me after the book got spiked, adding, "I wanted to honor Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored -- silenced -- by historians." Last month, Ms. Jones signed a termination agreement with Random House, so her literary agent could shop the book to other publishers.

This time, the instigator of the trouble wasn't a radical Muslim cleric, but an American academic. In April, looking for endorsements, Random House sent galleys to writers and scholars, including Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin. Ms. Jones put her on the list because she read Ms. Spellberg's book, "Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr."

But Ms. Spellberg wasn't a fan of Ms. Jones's book. On April 30, Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in Ms. Spellberg's classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, got a frantic call from her. "She was upset," Mr. Amanullah recalls. He says Ms. Spellberg told him the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history," and asked him to warn Muslims.

In an interview, Ms. Spellberg told me the novel is a "very ugly, stupid piece of work." The novel, for example, includes a scene on the night when Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha: "the pain of consummation soon melted away. Muhammad was so gentle. I hardly felt the scorpion's sting. To be in his arms, skin to skin, was the bliss I had longed for all my life." Says Ms. Spellberg: "I walked through a metal detector to see 'Last Temptation of Christ,'" the controversial 1980s film adaptation of a novel that depicted a relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "I don't have a problem with historical fiction. I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can't play with a sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography."

After he got the call from Ms. Spellberg, Mr. Amanullah dashed off an email to a listserv of Middle East and Islamic studies graduate students, acknowledging he didn't "know anything about it [the book]," but telling them, "Just got a frantic call from a professor who got an advance copy of the forthcoming novel, 'Jewel of Medina' -- she said she found it incredibly offensive." He added a write-up about the book from the Publishers Marketplace, an industry publication.

The next day, a blogger known as Shahid Pradhan posted Mr. Amanullah's email on a Web site for Shiite Muslims -- "Hussaini Youth" -- under a headline, "upcoming book, 'Jewel of Medina': A new attempt to slander the Prophet of Islam." Two hours and 28 minutes after that, another person by the name of Ali Hemani proposed a seven-point strategy to ensure "the writer withdraws this book from the stores and apologise all the muslims across the world."

Meanwhile back in New York City, Jane Garrett, an editor at Random House's Knopf imprint, dispatched an email on May 1 to Knopf executives, telling them she got a phone call the evening before from Ms. Spellberg (who happens to be under contract with Knopf to write "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an.")

"She thinks there is a very real possibility of major danger for the building and staff and widespread violence," Ms. Garrett wrote. "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." ("The Jewel of Medina" was to be published by Random House's Ballantine Books.) That day, the email spread like wildfire through Random House, which also received a letter from Ms. Spellberg and her attorney, saying she would sue the publisher if her name was associated with the novel. On May 2, a Ballantine editor told Ms. Jones's agent the company decided to possibly postpone publication of the book.

On a May 21 conference call, Random House executive Elizabeth McGuire told the author and her agent that the publishing house had decided to indefinitely postpone publication of the novel for "fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims" and concern for "the safety and security of the Random House building and employees."

All this saddens me. Literature moves civilizations forward, and Islam is no exception. There is in fact a tradition of historical fiction in Islam, including such works as "The Adventures of Amir Hamza," an epic on the life of Muhammad's uncle. Last year a 948-page English translation was published, ironically, by Random House. And, for all those who believe the life of the prophet Muhammad can't include stories of lust, anger and doubt, we need only read the Quran (18:110) where, it's said, God instructed Muhammad to tell others: "I am only a mortal like you."

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad - WSJ.com

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Mortgage Backed Security survivor

If only the Mafia could learn a thing or two from the Moslems...

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Actually, most of the Muslims I know are infuriated by this kind of carry on. The people doing it seem to assume that Muslims are too violent and hypersensitive to be able to let other people have their freedom of speech.

well unfortunately this dope of a professor made a hash of it straight away and riled everyone up, so even if it printed by another publisher, thers sure to be some back fire......the proff’s agenda was clear from the first quote and the other articles I have read, she doesn't believe in poetic license regards Islam....and thats a free speech issue no matter how you slice it.....and makes he the usual University dolt who has it any which way they like and then cry halt when their sensibilities are hurt.

__________________
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

H. L. Mencken


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

Attacking the prof here is shooting the messenger, she's simply doing her job in warning of the reaction. Random House is similarly doing nothing more than saying they don't think the increased money is worth the jeopardy it will place themselves and their people in.

Make no mistake, someone will pick this book up, and will take the risk for the extra millions of copies this controversy will sell, similarly, the author may have to go into hiding, but it will be a gilded exile.

I have to ask, how would "Bedroom Fantasies of the Blessed Virgin, Old Men and Roamin' Soldiers" be received in Europe's remaining Most Catholic nations?

It would probably get some negative attention, but, no one would have to "go into hiding" for fear of their life. The peaceful religion of Islam. Right.

geuss this goes to show if people in your religion blow themselves up and kill people, people will appease that religion for whatever they want

That's fishy. The Last Temptation of Christ come out in 1988. I didn't recall having to walk through a metal detector to see it.

So, I searched for any reports about metal detectors being used at theaters which showed this film. The best I found was some theater in LA installed them, but that wasn't a media outlet, rather from a forum post.

Assuming that maybe some theater in LA used them, I looked up Denise Spellberg's bio. She was awarded her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1989.

I did a NYT archive search for metal detectors used in NYC. (I'm assuming Spellberg was not traveling to LA when she is in the last months of defending her dissertation.) Surely the NYT would report that. I found nothing.

I have to wonder if Prof. Spellberg is using a bit of hyperbole with her comment. Fishy.

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What would you do instead, invade every nation that has protests when a book they don't like is published? Appeasement is a military term.

No, retreat and surrender are military terms, Appeasment is an apt description of what is often dubbed "diplomacy"

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John Drake, where are these protests, where death is a realistic prospect for the "offensive" people? Amongst Muslims.

"Appeasement" is a military term, yes, but it's an accurate term for when the people who are threatening to kill those who displease them are being indulged, apparently on the grounds that they can't be expected to control themselves. No one really has a problem with freedom of speech, including voicing your displeasure. Every sane person has a problem with murder, and threats of murder.

well, how was the davinci code, the piss christ the virgin mary with elephant dung received? are you kidding or what?

__________________
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

H. L. Mencken


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

thank you Si, I was wondering about that, but didn’t do any research so kept my mouth shut.
I too saw it in a theatre while on leave, there were a few folks with signs just like there were at monty pythons the life of brain. No one got killed or even egged....
The proff. is the atypical relativist lib nag/hag, she didn't like it, so she trashed it, see did a lot more than just "warn folks" she stirred the pot...thats that celebrated “tolerance” for you.

__________________
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

H. L. Mencken


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

(1) Random House is indulging those who believe that free speech should only apply to them. If you don't stand up to these people, they won't stop, and they'll drag the reputations of their co-religionists down with them.

(2) Yes, that makes everything all right.

(3) Coming from an overwhelmingly Catholic nation, I can say: no one would die. There would be no attempts to stop it being published. There wouldn't be threats against the publishers or writers. Some clergy might ask the members of their parish not to buy the book.

Let me add to Imperator's response, by pointing out that Dan Brown did not have to seek advice from Sal Rushdie on how to go about hiding for his life for a decade due to his authorship, and the reaction of catholics around the world. The Pope didn't put a price on his head or anything.

__________________
"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane