A US publisher has cancelled the publication of a novel about the youngest wife of the Muslim prophet Mohammed amid a growing controversy over the book.
‘The Jewel of Medina,’ a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones about Mohammed’s child bride A’isha had been due for release in the United States last week.
But publisher Random House released her from the contract amid the controversy and her agent said Jones is now looking for a publisher in another country to pick up the rights.
Look, pulling a book from publication because it might offend the religious sensitivity of some jackholes is antithetical to what books represent. I’m sick of the theocrats making the rest of society walk on eggshells around them. This current go around it has been Islam that’s bitching, and the idea that the right way to respond to this is to declare jihad and whatnot is clear evidence of the dumb.
Oh, jeesh. This in and of itself will be right wing ’surrendercrat’ type charge fodder for months, and will immediately be taken up by the McCain brigades.
Good for you for noting this, Oliver. It’s an anecdote, to be sure, but it’s far from the first one.
We are not going to integrate Muslim immigrants into Western countries by kowtowing to an extremist minority. It doesn’t do non-Muslims any favors to act like this, and it doesn’t do the vast majority of Muslims any favors, either.
I’d buy this.
Random House should be ashamed.
Mary Matalin’s publishing imprint will pick it up.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!
You are a democrat!!!
You aren’t allowed to offend muslims!!!!
They’re one of your protected demographics that you must pander to for votes!!!
I think j mccann’s head exploded and spilled exclamation points everywhere.
Either that or he’s just wired to panic the second anybody says the word “Muslim.”
Hey McCann;
“We’re bigger than Jesus”.
That offended no one’s sensibilities, right?
And you know, the American Religious Right, the Pat Robertson-James Dobson-Bill Donohue Axis, surely curses every night that they don’t have as much success suppressing the books and movies they don’t like.
I know a handful of Muslim guys that would have no problem with this, and in fact would probably read it. But then they also attend an American university, have American women as roommates and regularly frequent Blockbuster.
Somebody at Random House got their perception of Muslims from Little Green Footballs.
Just pathetic.
F*CK ALL of the religious zealots and the religions that created (and cater) to them.
Atheism is the only answer.
I heard the following said many years ago, and I subscribe:
“There will be no peace in the Middle East until you get God out of the equation.”
I think you can alter that a bit to also say:
“There will be no intellectual advancements until you get God out of the equation.”
or how about:
“They said it couldn’t be done, and by golly it couldn’t.”
Athiests suck.
Agnostics rule!
And as far as pandering to muslims, look no farther than that leftist cult known as the ACLU. They’ll sue to ban crosses on public property, but when KC airport wants the public to fund an islamic footwashing basin, no problem there! A little consistency would be nice.
LMAO!
A footwashing basin is not an Islamic symbol. You’re welcome to use it to wash your feet for your own secular reasons.
A footwashing basin is not an Islamic symbol. You’re welcome to use it to wash your feet for your own secular reasons.
Hell, I’d use it, and I’m Jewish. I like my feet clean.
Weird. I wrote that it was pathetic that they’re catering to the extremist minority of the Islamic faith, and my comment winds up in moderation limbo. Anyway, screw Random House. Bunch of idiots.
mccann, I’m sure you already know this, because my guess is that you’ve been told your entire life. But I just thought that I would remind you: You’re an idiot.
spider, evidently you’re not familiar with that story. It was put their specifically at the request of muslim cabbies who observe foot washing as part of their prayer ritual.
If you don’t think it’s an “islamic thing,” in this instance anyways, go in there, dip your dirty feet in one of them and eat a ham sandwich at the same time. I guarantee you’ll see how “secular” these basins are. This is another example of the ACLU and their horrible inconsistency…..and yet another example of spineless pandering by left-wingers such as yourself.
Gotta get those “non-white-red-staters” to vote democrat! Here guys, here’s a foot washing basin for your prayers!
Pathetic. And your intellectual dishonesty — even more pathetic.
I didn’t say it’s not “an Islamic thing,” I said it’s not an Islamic “symbol” in the way that crosses are symbols of Christianity, which was your comparison. If the cabbies were asking for a crescent moon on a field of green to be placed, on the public dollar, in the airport, then your comparison would be apt. If they’d asked for a mosque they’d have been out of line.
They made a request for something that made their workday easier, and the only reason you’re up in arms about it is because it’s a bunch of those Muslims you don’t care for. Did you also protest when the left began pandering to the handicapped by giving them special parking spaces and access ramps?
And why on Earth would somebody want to stand in a foot-washing basin while eating a ham sandwich?
That’s a load of epic stupid there j mccann.
“Somebody at Random House got their perception of Muslims from Little Green Footballs.”
So Parthenon, you should look into the whole story, because, sadly, you’re probably 180 degrees off target.
Random House got their perception regarding this book from a UT Austin Professor, Denise Spellberg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_of_Medina
If you google it up, this is a good place to start:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121797979078815073.html
You Still Can’t Write About Muhammad By ASRA Q. NOMANI
Ms. Nomani is a Muslim journalist with some very interesting things to say.
Sadly, Parthenon, and tragically too, over the past decade there have been several/many former Muslims who have escaped death threats and have come to the US and who were first approached by conservatives and not us liberals. So right now, we are in this ugly situation where conservatives (often at AEI) are the ones supporting free speech, and a discussion of religion and religious tolerance and pressure, and WORSE, we get from time to time various liberal figures or bloggers name calling and trying to delegitimize these various former Muslims, and actually calling for limits on free speech.
A good person to read on these issues is the Apostate Blog
http://apostate.wordpress.com/about/ She is a 25 year old former Muslim, raised in Saudi Arabia, living in Northern California. On most issues she is a radical feminist, and though radical feminism and I don’t get along, it’s understandable considering her background. But she also blogs about and supports these horrible rightwing former Muslims, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and worse.
So it’s probably easier to just think that Random House was listening to LGF than to spend time exploring this. Because if you walk this path, you may discover some really horrible things: that the conservative AEI may be on the side of good here, that various liberals are not, that there is in fact a real thing of political correctness and pc police, **that there are people who associate with David Horowitz that aren’t entire screwed up**, ***that Horowitz himself may not be entirely screwed up***
(Related: there’s a real schism in feminism over these issues, with many feminists declaring that wearing of hijab, niquab, burka are basically feminist acts, and many many feminists comparing some bizarre religious misogyny actually on a par or better than what women have to face in Western Society. An okay place to read about that is at Salon’s Broadsheet which is crazy feminist, but not as crazy feminist as some, and in the comments to some utterly stupid posts there are a variety of people who comment, sometimes relatively insightfully.)
spider,
a) I would eat a ham sandwich anytime, especially while having a nice foot wash.
b) I think you see my point, you just choose to pretend like it’s not an issue to have tax dollars go to a foot wasing basin requested by muslims for religious practices. If they can have their little toys, can everyone? I want consistency. Nothing more, nothing less. Seems that you’re paralyzed on this issue because you must pander to this demographic for votes. As someone that has had the pleasure of working with several somalians that forced the company to have pork products removed from ALL the vending machines because it “offended their religious sensitivites,” I’ve seen how groups of people will push the envelope with things like this. But if that’s what you want, whatever I guess. Anything for votes.
c) OW is right. Islam right now is “King of the Crybabies” when it comes to religious whining. When cartoons, movies, teddy bears, and books in the toilet cause riots and death, that puts you at the top of the list. Congrats to Islam.
d) I’m wondering if you have a problem with cabbies refusing rides to people because they are transporting wine, have guide dogs, etc, because of their religious beliefs too? What about schools using tax dollars to teach religious doctrine in the name of multiculturalism? How do you feel about these things? It is happening in some places. (check out minneapolis/st. paul area)
Just wondering.
Actually, j mccann, if you would bother to stop attacking every time you post and try to have a dialogue instead, you might find we have much more in common on this issue than you would otherwise care to discover. (I presume that’s the case because you couldn’t bring yourself to agree with Oliver’s point outright, choosing instead to first play immature little “why don’t you fit into my label” games.)
(a) You’re supposed to wash your own feet in the station. There’s nobody there who does it for you. Eating a ham sandwich in that station is just being silly, and if you tried to do both, your sandwich will get all soggy.
(b) If you think that Muslims en masse are looking to vote for the candidate who promises to remove pork products from the vending machines, you either have an overly optimistic view of politicians or an overly pessimistic view of Muslims.
(c) I agree with OW as well, although “books in the toilet” is an awfully convenient generalization of what happened there. Christians and Jews would have every right to feel just as outraged if their holy books were dumped in a toilet.
(d) I do have a problem with these things, but then I have a problem with anybody of any religion refusing to do the jobs they are paid for because of their faith. They shouldn’t apply for those jobs. I would say the same thing to the pharmacists who won’t distribute birth control or morning-after pills.
I don’t think a public school should proselytize, but I think it is crucial that children learn as much as they can about other cultures’ religious tenets. I think they should learn other languages, I think they should learn the mythology of the Apache. I think that children should be taught the full and accurate political platforms of both Barack Obama and John McCain. I think children should be taught everything we can possibly teach them in the name of education, and that the most important thing we can teach them is to be curious, so they can decide to learn on their own what we don’t have the time or the funding to teach them.
By the by, j mccann, I was raised in a Muslim household. I’ve had these discussions before with people who actually know what they’re talking about when they bring these issues to the table. Even when we disagree, I’ve never found any of them to half as off-the-handle and bitchy as you have been here on OW’s blog. Grow up, already.
I don’t think a public school should proselytize, but I think it is crucial that children learn as much as they can about other cultures’ religious tenets. I think they should learn other languages, I think they should learn the mythology of the Apache.
In principle I couldn’t agree more, and there are some really dedicated young teachers out there bringing a lot more of this stuff in, but at some point they unfortunately run up against a practicality issue, and run out of hours in the day.
The strangest thing about this to me is that the same people who’d tend to disagree with you are those who’d unequivocally tell you that the United States is the world’s ‘best’ country in every way. My standard response has always been A) Why do you feel the need to be “better” than others? and B) Other than GDP, “best” how?
Yeah, that damned time issue always gets in the way of my best ideas. That’s why I think it’s paramount that the kids are taught a need to be curious and questioning.
“Teaching the test” has been one of the most damaging education principles we’ve seen in recent years–the idea that we only teach things that will be on the test instead of also encouraging interest in things you won’t be tested on at all. I had a handful of history teachers who wouldn’t just talk about the Civil War in terms of battles, but would also tell us the otherwise trivial details of Stonewall Jackson’s death (shot accidentally by his own men, dead of pneumonia complications days later).
Spider,
I would not dip the ham sandwich in the water, just for the record. And if I somehow managed to drop this particular sandwich, then I wouldn’t eat it either.
But it seems that we do agree on this general issue, ham sandwich aside. But I think that any sort of violence, rioting, threats, and so forth are completely out of line, even for “books in the toilet.” Even “outrage” is a bit much in my opinion. It’s irrational and unjustifiable to reasonable people. And yes, I admit, I am very skeptical of muslims, particularly in situations of mass immigration, being able to assimilate into western societies. Europe in particular is a freaking powderkeg. Don’t know if you’ve ever spent any time in the UK or parts of France, but there are literally what the locals call “no go zones” now, and they’re heavily populated with angry, ridiculously devout muslims with little or no desire to assimilate, many of them living off government tax dollars. Why any society would want that demographic in their society is beyond me. I don’t see the same problem here in the US though, well, at least not to the degree that some European nations will be dealing with this problem in the future. And mark my word, it will be a problem. History repeats itself. Especially when history is dealing with religion.
…..waiting for islamophopic/racist accusation in 9…8…7…6…5…
…..waiting for islamophopic/racist accusation in 9…8…7…6…5…
This is what I was saying, J. Get the chip off your shoulder.
As someone that has had the pleasure of working with several somalians that forced the company to have pork products removed from ALL the vending machines because it “offended
Who the fuck would buy pork products out of a vending machine? Who would PUT pork products in a vending machine?
I think there is a little more to that story than the polemicist mccann is telling us. I suspect that the offending Islamofascists wouldn’t buy anything out of the vending machine because pork contaminates the machine, and the vending company accomodated them in order to get their Yankee Dollars. No different than McDonald’s inventing the Filet of Fish to satisfy their Catholic customers on Friday’s during Lent.
That being said, anyone who fights to remove pork products from a vending machine is a friend of mine. Nothing good can come of vended pork products.
Why not just add on to Ann Coulter’s hate but say its a joke.
“Kill their people”
“Topple their governments”
“Christianize their people”
Add on:
“Smear their prophets”
“Disgrace the image of Mohammed”
“Treat Muslim women as wannabe Paris Hilton whores”
If the Muslims don’t have thick-skins, they are not moderate Muslims, so let’s kill them because they are Anti-American terrorists. If there are any Muslims left let’s win their hearts and minds and give them complimentary Britney concert tickets.
As for “pork products” in the vending machine, what it really means is things like “animal shortening” or anything containing gelatin–all of which can be found in many vending machine snacks. Twinkies are verboten!
I’ll say that if the Somalians refused to buy anything out of the machine because something they didn’t want contained animal shortening was also in the machine, then they’re overdoing it a bit.
Wow, that last sentence was torturous. Sorry about that.
Maybe (of course we don’t know the real story) it is overdoing it a bit. On the other hand, these stories are told specifically to debase Muslims. I live in a predominately Orthodox Jewish community, and to slice non-Kosher meats with the same utensils as Kosher meats “contaminates” the Kosher meats. Even using plates that have had non-Kosher foods on them is not allowed by most Orthodox families. Finicky religious eating habits certainly aren’t unique to Muslims.
You might have to retract this piece, Oliver. I not only agree with you, but gave you a pat on the back over at Wizbang.
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/08/20/hey-whats-that-pig-doing-up-there.php
And before anyone complains, the “pig” is a reference to flying pigs — a metaphor for us agreeing.
J.