From Guardian UK:The London home of the UK publisher of a controversial new novel “The Jewel of Medina” 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 £2.5m town house in Islington’s Lonsdale Square, which also doubles as the headquarters of his publishing company, Gibson Square. Three men were arrested.
The book was originally to be published in the US by Random House, who later withdrew it’s offer to author Sherry Jones. It will be published next month in the US by Beaufort Books, a small press that also published “If I Did It”.
Rynja commented, :”I was completely bowled over by the novel and the moving love story it portrays,’ he said earlier this month. ‘I was struck by the careful research of Sherry Jones, who is a journalist with almost 30 years of experience, and her passion for the novel’s characters. I immediately felt that it was imperative to publish it. In an open society there has to be open access to literary works, regardless of fear.”
How is this book different from Da Vinci Code?
I just quickly ran through the Guardian piece. This is despicable. Firebombing a publisher of something like this is just wrong. Once you resort to that, frankly civilized society starts to no longer exist as firebombing is not a form of communication but a manifestation of dominating force.
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F
Starts?
People are murdering others for their thoughts, their writings, and even their religion.
Civilized society went away when men stopped wearing hats to the office. We make it through the day primarily on sheer luck.
We need to be afraid, very afraid. Fanatics, perverts, murders, sex offenders, child molesters, you pass a dozen of them every day. The idea that we can reform society is absurd, all we can do is make certain that our families are safe, and be very cautious with whom you associate.
There are people who want to kill you simply because of where you were born or what religion you are. They don’t want to discuss it, they don’t want to hear how open minded you are to their particular position, they simply want to slit your throat.
The Book
Jewel of Medina
NYT article about this
Here is a link to the NYT article about this.