"Random House wimped out and chose to go back on its agreement with an author because of the warnings of some academics. Better to protect their own hides than to promote free and open discourse.....
"Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin....."was upset,” when she read this novel after Random House sent it to her as a pre-publication heads up. “In an interview, Ms. Spellberg"..said "the novel is a 'very ugly, stupid piece of work.' She was upset,” and told the interviewer that the novel 'made fun of Muslims and their history,' and asked him to warn Muslims."
As a result, Random House pulled the book from publication and broke the contract with the author. The book, "The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, a fiction novel about A’isha, Muhammad’s youngest bride" is now pending new publication.
Such intimidation of a major publishing house and its acquiescence is not a good omen for the free press and for the publication of free ideas within our near future. Read the blog that details the story here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment