Novel pulled from bookshops after Muslim protest
Alison Flood writing in guardian.co.uk,
Monday August 18 2008

The Serbian publisher of Sherry Jones's controversial novel about the child bride of Muhammad has been withdrawn the book following protests from an Islamic pressure group. Publisher BeoBook yesterday pulled 1,000 copies of Jones's The Jewel of Medina from bookshops across Serbia and apologised for its publication.

Last week Random House US dropped the book from its schedule after being warned by academics and security experts that it posed a potential threat worse than the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the Danish publication of cartoons of Muhammad.

Serbia was the first country in the world to publish the book, bringing it out on August 1. BeoBook director Aleksandar Jasic has now confirmed that the novel was withdrawn from bookshops on Sunday August 17. "We have apologised and they [the group] have told me they accept the apology," he said. At a press conference today the group, known as The Islamic Community in Serbia, said it accepted Jasic's apology and that it would therefore cancel its plans for public protests over the book.

Read the full story from the Guardian online.