Random House Concedes
Sherry Jones, a journalist, wrote an historical novel about Aisha, the child bride of the Prophet Mohammed (Aisha was six years old at the time of the marriage). In 2007, publishing heavyweight Random House bought the rights to the novel, titled The Jewel of Medina, offering the author $100,000. Jones spent five years researching Aisha’s life, studying Arabic, and working through seven drafts before finally finishing the novel. Random House was preparing to market the book as a “Book of the Month” selection when the book was published August 12, 2008.
But it wasn’t. Shortly before its scheduled publication, Random House decided not to publish the novel after all. Random House feared a violent reaction from Jihadis. A statement from the publisher, making no attempt to disguise the preemptive surrender to intimidation, explained that after sending out advance copies of the novel “we received in response, from credible and unrelated sources… 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.” Unwilling to stand up to Islamic radicals, Random House handed Jones her walking papers.
Read the whole story: Fear and Fiction.
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