"Gibson Square, a British publishing house, has announced that it will soon release "The Jewel of Medina," a novel by American author Sherry Jones, whose publication in the United States was recently canceled by Random House for fear of triggering violence by Islamic fanatics. Bravo," says Alvaro Vargas Llosa of the International Herald Tribune."Any time, any place in which the threat of violence inhibits the exercise of free expression," he wrote, "the imperfect freedoms of Western civilization that so many people around the world struggle to imitate are in danger.
"I am not interested in the reasons why Gibson Square has decided to publish the book — whether it's opportunism or a belief in the merits of the novel. But the fact that someone, somewhere, is willing to run the risk of not letting the threat of violence inhibit free expression is tremendously comforting."
Read the whole article: The Silence of the Cowed. Print this post
1 comment:
Update on this story: The publisher was a victim of arson. From this article:
"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, which has already been likened to Sir Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
"The novel, which focuses on the relationship between Mohammed and his child bride Aisha, was recently dropped from publication in the United States by the publishers Random House amid fears that it would anger Muslims."
Post a Comment