Sunday, September 28, 2008

Extremists Attempt to Burn Out London Publisher of The Jewel of Medina


London's Gibson Square, publisher of the new novel about Mohammed's child bride, was firebombed yesterday and three men and one woman have been detained for questioning about the crime according to London's Telegraph.



The blaze yesterday, which led to people being evacuated from the house, may have been started by a petrol bomb pushed through the letter box.

Initially, three men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were detained at around 2.25am yesterday after a fire broke out at a property in Lonsdale Square, Islington. Two were stopped by armed officers in Lonsdale Square, and the third was seized when a car was stopped by armed police near Angel underground station.
...
Speaking before yesterday's attack, Mr Rynja said: "In an open society there has to be open access to literary works, regardless of fear. As an independent publishing company, we feel strongly that we should not be afraid of the consequences of debate.

"If a novel of quality and skill that casts light on a beautiful subject we know too little of in the West, but have a genuine interest in, cannot be published here, it would truly mean that the clock has been turned back to the dark ages. The Jewel of Medina has become an important barometer of our time."
...
Police also searched four addresses around north-east London yesterday - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.

The men, who were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, were being questioned at a central London police station.

Later yesterday a fourth person, a woman, was arrested at a property in Ilford for allegedly obstructing the police, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

The police confirmed that there had been small fire inside the property in Lonsdale Square, which had to be put out. "At this early stage it is being linked with the arrests," the spokesman added.
Some still live in the Dark Ages - and they want the rest of us to join them. This is disgusting.

Previous Posts on The Jewel of Medina:

Did Random House Chicken Out (August 7, 2008)

The Jewel of Medina Finds a Publisher (September 5, 2008)


16 comments:

  1. I don't know what anyone could ever publish in a book that would make me want to firebomb. I have to admit a perverse curiousity into minds that can become that passionate about something. I'm glad no one got hurt.

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  2. Yeah, what John said. Thanks for posting about this--I hadn't heard. (And now I want to read the book!) And just when people in the States (and elsewhere) are considering the implications of banning/censoring books... What timing.

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  3. That's just plain old ridiculous. No two ways about it.

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  4. I can't believe anyone would do such a thing. In my mind, people who protest so strongly about books must be afraid of the ideas held within them- which probably means they hold some truth. Must read this book now.

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  5. I have never understood why some people try so hard to have books banned and not read by anyone. I also think it is very wrong of anyone to hurt others over what someone else has written. It is a shame that we still have people today who would rather see a building destroyed and people possibly hurt than to have a book read.

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  6. John, I'm like you. I simply can't imagine wanting to kill someone because of what they wrote in a book or helped publish. Now, if bad authors were on my hit list, I'd never catch up... :-)

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  7. Jena, I hope that this book gets enough publicity that it sells enough to hit best seller lists everywhere...the perfect revenge on extremist nuts like these.

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  8. Exile, I don't know why this is being kept relatively quiet the way it is. I hope the world is not so jaded about terrorism that it accepts this kind of thing as normal and not newsworthy.

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  9. Gotta agree, J.S., totally ridiculous and something right out of the Dark Ages.

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  10. Put it on your TBR list, Jeanne, and tell others about it. We need to push this book as much as we all can...sweet revenge.

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  11. Sharley, those folks are still living in the Dark Ages and they will not be satisfied until the rest of us join them there. They need to be fought as hard as possible so that this kind of thing stops...read the book and push it among your friends.

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  12. I'd consider buying a copy, to make a point, but I don't want to read a book that glorifies a marriage between an older man and a 9 year old girl! I find pedophilia offensive...

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  13. As I do, Sylvia, but I don't think this one is anything like what you fear it might be. The author has said that there is NO SEX in this book at all, in fact.

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  14. Then it is indeed fiction. In reality, there was, and there still is. The official minimum age of marriage for girls in Yemen is 9 precisely because Mohammed married Aisha when she was 9. The stories of abuse of little girls in that country are horrific, all the more so because it is all perfectly legal under sharia law.

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  15. My impression is that the book covers the "marriage" at that young age but that it does not include any scenes involving bedroom scenes and the like.

    I assume that the relationship is explained in terms that do not add to the indecency of the situation through unnecessary details or language. I hope that I am right because I have no interest in reading it otherwise.

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