The Fire-Bombed Book

The Infidel author, now in hiding for her own book, weighs in on the Mohammad bodice-ripper Jewel of Medina, out today.

Today, a book is published that has caused great consternation in the Muslim world and beyond. Originally to be published by Random House, The Jewel of Medina, a novel by Sherry Jones, soon ran into trouble with Muslims because it dared discuss the marriage of the prophet Mohammed to his child bride Aisha.

Ms. Jones was all set for an eight-city tour of America and a $100,000 publicity campaign when the book was originally scheduled for release at the beginning of August. Then the protests and threats began and Random, anxious not to become the target of violence, cancelled publication. Had they declined to publish the book because it is poor literature, they would have had a good point and no one would have ever have doubted their motives.

To his great credit, a British publisher, Gibson Square, picked up the novel and has decided to allow readers to decide for themselves. For his pains his offices in London were firebombed; three young British Muslims were arrested and have been charged.

I know something about being hounded and threatened by bullies hiding behind the name of Mohammed. It soon became clear that my life, too, was in dire danger.

I know something about being hounded and threatened by bullies hiding behind the name of Mohammed. As a campaigner for the rights of Muslim women, I made a film with the Dutch documentary director Theo van Gogh, Submission, which raised issues that also caused a violent reaction. Theo was a dear colleague of mine. While cycling to work one morning, he was shot repeatedly by a fanatic who claimed he had defamed Mohammed. What happened next is beyond belief. Theo's assailant drew out a knife and slit his throat.

It soon became clear that my life, too, was in dire danger. I was put up by the Dutch state in a safe house in Holland, but the neighbors discovered that I was living among them and feared that they, too, may become victims of mindless savage violence. They took the matter to a judge who agreed that my presence was putting their lives in danger. So, unable to find a safe house in Holland that was really safe, I was smuggled out of the country in a military plane and have sought refuge in America.

It is clear that Muslims in general do not take kindly to any criticism of Islam. Many become offended beyond reason if the criticism relates to Muhammad, the founder of their faith, or even a perceived 'mishandling' of the Koran, their holy book. For a significant minority, the mere appearance of images that represent their prophet is an invitation to outright violence. It is that intolerance to any depiction of the prophet that led to the threat against a Danish cartoonist who dared draw Mohammed.

The most notable case of Muslim rage at the depiction of the prophet, of course, is the violent threats against Salman Rushdie, whose Satanic Verses in 1989 inspired the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, no less, to put a bounty on the beheading of the novelist. Since then the violent street protests, assassination plots, bombings and threats of individuals over perceived insults against the prophet have become commonplace around the world.

Mohammed, the Koran and Allah can only be praised in the mind of the Muslim. For most Muslims, an insult toward Islam is considered to be any form of commentary or imagery that passes moral judgment on any part of that religion. As this issue is clear to my heart, and has caused the death of one of my dearest friends, I spent a day and a half trying to get to the end of Sherry Jones's The Jewel of Medina in search of content that might be considered offensive to Muslims. And I barely found a trace.

Ms Jones says in an afterword to the book that she is eager to bring her books into the world while they are still relevant. It seems to me she is less motivated by a desire to tell a good story and more by an urge in writing her novel and its sequel to help empower Muslim women. She wants to do this by providing them with a heroine from the early days of Islam.