By Diane Evans

With instant global communications, is book censorship even possible?
Consider the expedited release of Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina, the
controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad that some Muslims find
offensive. It’s a historical romance about Muhammad’s child bride, A’isha.
Random House originally planned to publish the book in August. But amid
concern that the book would incite violence by extremists, Random House
canceled publication.
Meanwhile, a Dutch publisher, Martin Rynja of Gibson Square Books, moved ahead with plans to release The Jewel of Medina in Great Britain. That was until a firebomb attack on Rynja’s office – which put his plans on hold.
Now in the United States, publisher Beaufort Books has just released the
book — a week earlier than planned, in response to the attack in Great
Britain. “By speeding up the publication, we wanted to reduce or eliminate
the chance of violence,” according to Beauford president Eric Kampmann.
Some comments from the blogging world:
This from Hungarian novelist Miklos Vamos, writing on the Web site of the
Washington Post: “Why do we expect book publishers to be any more
courageous than the rest of us?
“… All in all, it is easy to cry censorship at any decision of any
publishing house in the world. But without reading the manuscript, it is
hard to tell whether Random House was right. There are oeuvres that are
worth some trouble.” And others not.
And this from Marjorie Kehe, blogging on the site of the Christian Science
Monitor:
“Into the fray steps Salman Rushdie. In an interview with Australian
broadcaster Clive James, he is reported to have said that he has no regrets
about having written The Satanic Verses, despite the 10 years he spent
living in hiding after having done so. ‘The question of do we have agency in
our lives or whether we are just passive victims of events is, I think, a
great question and one that I have always tried to ask,’ said Rushdie in
comments published on James’ Web site. ‘In that sense I wouldn’t not have
wanted to be the writer that asked it.’ ”
In a review in the Los Angeles Times, critic Laurel Maury notes, “It does
seem odd that Random House – which publishes Rushdie, a man made famous well beyond literary circles by the fatwa against him, and Nobel Laureate Orhan
Pamuk, who regularly receives death threats in his native Turkey — would
balk at a novel that, from the excerpts, seemed an un-serious piece of
literature about Islam.”
As to censorship: It’s not so much whether censorship is possible. Thank
goodness, the more relevant question today is whether it’s impossible.

A U.S. publisher plans to speed up the release of Sherry Jones’ “The Jewel of Medina, the controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad that some Muslims find offensive.

“By speeding up the publication, we wanted to reduce or eliminate the chance of violence,” Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books, said Thursday, noting that three men were arrested in London last weekend for a fire-bomb attack on the offices of publisher Gibson Square.

Beaufort agreed to publish The Jewel of Medina in the United States after Random House, concerned about possible violent reactions to the book, backed out. Plans to publish in England have stalled, although publishers in Serbia, Italy and Hungary plan to publish it.

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