Over the past couple of weeks I have carried The Jewel of Medina story several times so today I was a little surprised (I am in the US at present to attend a friend's wedding) to find The Washington Post carrying it as a news story. It is however a good summary of the story thus far so if you missed my earlier postings then check out the following.

A Book Too Hot Off The Presses
Random House Feared Radical Muslim Backlash

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 21, 2008;

Once upon a time, Sherry Jones was a Montana newspaper reporter who dreamed she could contribute to world peace with a novel about the prophet Muhammad and his feminist leanings. Then she wrote it. Today? She's the target of a Serbian mufti and a Middle Eastern studies professor with a lawyer.
Life has been a roller coaster lately for Jones, 46, who went from being a Book-of-the-Month Club pick to seeing her novel dropped by Random House, which said in a statement it had received "cautionary advice" that the fictionalized story of one of Muhammad's wives might "incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."
A Random House spokeswoman said she could not think of any other time the company had canceled a book because of such fears.
Jones and her novel, "The Jewel of Medina," are subjects of debate from Egypt to Italy to Serbia, where 1,000 Serbian-language copies were printed before the local publisher backed out, too.
For the rest go to the Washington Post online.