Muslims Offended Again. Publisher Takes “Firm Stand”

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Tue, 2008-08-19 08:01

A quote from the press agency AKI, 18 August 2008

The Islamic Community in Serbia said on Monday it was not satisfied with the withdrawal of Sherry Jones’ novel, The Jewel of Medina, from the country’s bookshops. Referring to the book released by Belgrade publisher Beobuk three weeks ago, the organisation’s leader Muamer Zukorlic said it was “offensive to Muslims” and demanded all of the published copies be handed in. He also called for director Aleksandar Jasic to repent for what he had done.

After an initial complaint from the Islamic community, Jasic apologised saying the company "had no intention of insulting Muslims in Serbia" and announced the book would not be available in any bookstore in the country. But Zukorlic said on Monday that this was not enough. […]

The book was due to have a world premier in Serbia, since its US publisher decided against selling the book fearing the reaction of radical Muslims. […] The novel is a love story about the life of Aisha, the seventh wife of the Islam prophet Mohammed, and follows her life from her betrothal to the prophet when she was six-years-old.

 

A quote from a statement by The Random House Publishing Group, 18 August 2008

The Jewel of Medina

After sending out advance editions of the novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, we received […] 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 […]. We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, even those that may be construed as offensive by some. However, […] in this instance we decided, after much deliberation, 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.

  

A quote from Andrew Klavan at PajamasMedia, 12 August 2008

The very need for such apologias and the very fear felt by Random House condemn the violent principles of the gangsters they’re appeasing. [Dan Brown’s novel] The Da Vinci Code spends its nearly five hundred pages trashing the central beliefs of the Christian community. But for all the hysteria in intellectual circles over fundamentalist Christians, no one had to cower before them or make mealy-mouthed excuses.

Marx out of 10

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Fri, 2008-08-22 17:35.

Good answer.( 6 out of 10). So, does this mean in future that you will be prepared to answer questions with similar maturity and forthrightness?

re: Prager

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Fri, 2008-08-22 15:42.

"Even when I still live in judeo-christian Europe...".

 

 

i   Is that a hint that you might be leaving us soon? Please, say it IS so.

 

ii  While you're still with us, perhaps you'll eventually find the courage to respond to the question I put to you in my post, "re: identification issue".

 

 

btw: If you don't  read the Prager article (and, probably in your case, even if you do) you won't undertstand why I  suggested that you read it. Here's another hint. Don't just read the article, read the comments section too, both for and against Prager's thesis. ANY teacher worth their salt would recognise this for what it is. It's a simple COMPREHENSION test.  

 

  

 

 

 

Groucho Marx

Submitted by kappert on Fri, 2008-08-22 17:17.

If the supposed student writes about the financial mishap of G. Marx during the 1929 crisis, and reveals his/her knowledge about this event, it is surely a good example for marxist capitalism critique.

Prager

Submitted by kappert on Fri, 2008-08-22 15:04.

Even when I still live in judeo-christian Europe, it does not mean that I have to read the 'Prager liberation' texts. Thank you, I'm doing well without it.

re: identification issue

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2008-08-20 21:24.

"Dear Atlanticist911, is this about identification?"

 

 

No, actually, this is SUPPOSED to be about Muslims being offended (again), by the publication of a novel, "The Jewel of Medina"...

 

But instead of sticking to the subject at hand, YOU have chosen to hijack the debate with your attempt to have the discussion shift to another topic entirely. Tell me, if you set your students the task of submitting an essay on "The life and legacy of Karl Marx", and one of them returned an essay on "The life an times of Groucho Marx", how would you react and why?  

 

Contemptible

Submitted by KO on Wed, 2008-08-20 23:42.

What could be more contemptible than Random House and Beobuk publicly announcing their withdrawal of a book from publication because it might offend Moslems? Now that they are known dhimmis, they can expect further demands, such as demands to hire Moslems to vet their inventories for other literature deemed offensive to the so-called prophet.

identification issue

Submitted by kappert on Wed, 2008-08-20 16:29.

Dear atlanticist911, is this about identification? Well, as an European, I still belong to the judaic-christian world, although I do not believe in their religions. As for pedophilia, putting aside the animistic african rituals (Mali, Niger, ...), there are enough christian examples to write about, don't you think?

re: Bible reading

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2008-08-20 14:16.

You can find the same words (with more 'variants'; eg fornicate, fornicator, fornication etc., not to mention synonyms like, bonk, screw, etc.,) in any common or garden pocket English dictionary. Are you going to stop children reading this book too? If not, what the hell is your point?

as the Pope says ...

Submitted by kappert on Wed, 2008-08-20 14:34.

... one of the "countersigns to the Gospel of Life" is the sexual abuse of minors, a situation "that causes deep shame". But the pope also said the problem of sex abuse must be placed in a wider context when pornography, violence and "the crude manipulation of sexuality" are so prevalent in society today. Does the discussed book fit in that context?

bible reading

Submitted by kappert on Wed, 2008-08-20 12:12.

There is a handy website that allows you to search the bible for content (http://www.biblegateway.com/). Using this we find that the King James version has “harlot” in it 48 times, “sodomite” 5 times, “fornicator” 5 times, “smite” 133 times, “kill” 208 times and “maim” 7 times. This is shocking, you have to wonder what any right minded parent is doing exposing their children to this stuff. What about adult rating?

The book is a whitewash of the "relationship"

Submitted by Alsation on Tue, 2008-08-19 23:46.

Read the author's own words:
http://www.blic.co.yu/infocus.php?id=2753
"I knew that some people would dislike my book. After all, “The Jewel of Medina” portrays Muhammad as a real man, and A'isha as a real woman, complete with weaknesses, temptations, and flaws."

This is insane. A nine year old female is a GIRL - not a WOMAN!

Another quote:

"The Muhammad I came to know would have waited until A'isha was physically and emotionally ready before having intercourse with her. He does so in my book, waiting until she is 14."

So, the author rewrites history! If I recall correctly from seeing some other websites, A'isha was nine at this horrible time. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

More analysis here:

"Not all Jewels are pretty"
http://newdefender.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/not-all-jewels-are-pretty/

Quote from above blog:

" If one notes that Aisha was only NINE YEARS OLD at the time of the marriage consummation (reference Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64 & 65), this dreadful romanticization becomes child pornography.
Decency, rather than fear of reprisal, should have been the basis for killing this book. "

Exactly.

Newdefender Blog also quotes this disgusting excerpt from the book:

"...the pain of consummation [there's that somehow-ambiguous word again] 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.”

Newdefender comments on this:
"Yeah, a little girl is going to have “longed for” sex with a man older than her father “all my life”. A proposition as ridiculous as it is gross."

If not killed, it's good this whitewash garbage is at least limited in it's publishing.

I think it was Fatima.

Submitted by onecent on Wed, 2008-08-20 00:39.

Alsatian, I think little Fatima, wife number 4, was the 9 year old that the illiterate camel thief, feckless spounger, vicious hater, pedophile violated. It wouldn't be so pathetic if his behavior wasn't regarded as a template of morality all of these centuries later.

The issue at hand is our right to say what we want regarding Islam. I think it is an anti-human cult no matter how some lefty pc multi-culturalist moron wants to spin it. What matters is my right to say that.

Islam

Submitted by KO on Wed, 2008-08-20 01:04.

At best it is a Christian heresy. The denial of the Incarnation is a staple of the Gnostics and has the same purpose as the Arian demotion of Christ to secondary stature. The absolute transcendance and unknowability of God in Islam is also a heresy. Eric Voegelin writes of Islam as a form of political Gnosticism that imagines it can bring about the next world in this one--"immanentizing the eschaton."

Yet, as a religion, it can lead religious seekers to the more articulated truths of Christianity. If a Moslem can free himself of institutionalized envy and hatred of Jews and Christians, his hunger for God can lead him far. See last week's interview on Foxnews.com about the son of the Hamas official who converted to Christianity. A highly individual awakening. He says 95 percent of Moslems don't even understand their own religion and don't believe the truth about it when it is told to them, which is virtually never.

What's the point?

Submitted by onecent on Wed, 2008-08-20 02:24.

When was the last time the Vatican issued a fatwa? Or Southern Baptists burned a witch at the stake?

Christian blasphemy laws are as laughable as a UFO sighting.

This is pointless. It's a silly diversion.

The bigger Useful Idiot in this story

Submitted by onecent on Tue, 2008-08-19 22:37.

Besides the typical cowardice of the publisher as per the WSJ's link the truly repugnant person in this censorship story was the Islamic history professor that started the ball rolling:

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.

We aren't going to win the WOT until these Useful Idiots, the lefty fascists in the West  that carry water for their Muslim  fascist counterparts, are uncovered and publically ridiculed.  What's disgusting is that there are so many of her.

Question for Sherry Jones

Submitted by kappert on Tue, 2008-08-19 19:05.

Aren't there enough non-muslims to write a softporn about?
What's the necessaty?
"We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, except when we don't stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas."
Of course, we do.

@ Kappert

Submitted by cephran on Tue, 2008-08-19 23:05.

Boo hoo. Poor little Moslem crybabies.

You guys need to grow your zibbs and thicken your skin a little more.

You have no idea what a JOKE you are to the rest of the civilized world.

We are all laughing at you clowns.

As a Christian and an

Submitted by THE DOCTOR on Tue, 2008-08-19 14:31.

As a Christian and an academic I am more than offended that this book about the Great Paedophile Mohammed is to be withdrawn from sale . If it is to be published in Britain I will certainly purchase a copy .