The Novel About Muhammed Cancelled by Ballantine

A WSJ opinion column by Asra Nomani recounts the events that produced Ballantine's cancellation in May of Sherry Jones's debut novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, "a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet Muhammed's harem." Nomani says "the series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world."

Random House Group deputy publisher Tom Perry says that 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."

They postponed 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."

Last month a termination agreement was executed so that agent Natasha Kern could shop the book to other publishers.The column attributes the beginning of the protests to associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin Denise Spellberg, who says "You can't play with a sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography."

Spellberg, after reviewing a galley sent for review and endorsement, spoke with someone who runs an e-mail list; that alert was expanded upon by a blogger, which led to someone posting as Ali Hemani iterating a seven-point strategy to make sure "the writer withdraws this book from the stores and apologise [sic] all the muslims across the world."

After the posting, Spellberg (who publishes with Knopf) alerted editor Jane Garrett to what she viewed as potential danger: "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."

Three weeks later Libby McGuire informed the author and agent the book was postponed indefinitely for "fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims" and concern for "the safety and security of the Random House building and employees."

This report from Publishers Lunch.