Salman Rushdie Criticizes Random House For Canceling Publication of The Jewel of Medina

Posted on August 15, 2008

Sir Salman Rushdie has blasted his publisher Random House for canceling publication of The Jewel of Medina, the novel about the prophet Mohammad's child bride Aisha. Random House canceled the book over fears that extremist Muslims would become violent over the book's content.

"I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have cancelled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals," Rushdie said. "This is censorship by fear and it sets a very bad precedent indeed." The withdrawal of Jones's book has renewed the debate over self-censorship in the treatment of Islam.

We're starting to feel like we've become the All Things Salman Rushdie Blog, which we had no intention of doing. It's not our fault that he's the Angelina Jolie of the literary world right now: his every utterance is recorded, analyzed and pondered. And don't even get us started on his love life.