Random House’s scrapping of a novel seen as possibly offensive by some Muslims, originally scheduled to hit shelves today, is causing a ruckus.

The Jewel of Medina, the debut novel of journalist Sherry Jones, is about Prophet Muhammad’s child bride A’isha, who is often referred to as Muhammad’s favorite wife. The story details her life, from her engagement at the age of six, until the prophet’s death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May that publication would be postponed indefinitely. 

"I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed … I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder," Jones told Reuters.

Random House said they received information from “credible and unrelated sources” that publication of the book “might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”

“We felt an obligation to take these concerns very seriously,” Random House said in a statement. “We consulted with security experts as well as with scholars of Islam, whom we asked to review the book and offer their assessments of potential reactions.”

The statement adds: “We decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel.”

Random House’s decision came to light this past week after The Wall Street Journal published a column by Muslim writer and scholar Asra Nomani, saying she was "saddened" by the turn of events.

In that August 6 column, entitled, “You Still Can’t Write About Muhammed,” Nomani said: “This saga upsets me as a Muslim — and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way.

Nomani said Jones told her she wanted to “honor Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored — silenced — by historians."

Nomani pointed the finger at American Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of A’isha Bint Abi Bakr.

“In an interview, Ms. Spellberg told me the novel is a ‘very ugly, stupid piece of work.’” Nomani wrote. Spellberg also told her: “I don’t have a problem with historical fiction. I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a sacred history and turn it into soft-core pornography.”

Two days later, on August 9, Spellberg had her own response published in the Wall Street Journal, saying she was not to blame for Random House’s decision to yank the book.

“I never had this power, nor did I single-handedly stop the book’s publication,” Spellberg wrote in the column, “I Didn’t Kill The Jewel of Medina.”

“As a historian invited to ‘comment’ on the book by its Random House editor at the author’s express request, I objected strenuously to the claim that The Jewel of Medina was ‘extensively researched,’ as stated on the book jacket. As an expert on A’isha’s life, I felt it was my professional responsibility to counter this novel’s fallacious representation of a very real woman’s life … I felt it my duty to warn the press of the novel’s potential to provoke anger among some Muslims.

“There is a long history of anti-Islamic polemic that uses sex and violence to attack the Prophet and his faith. This novel follows in that oft-trodden path, one first pioneered in medieval Christian writings. The novel provides no new reading of Aisha’s life, but actually expands upon provocative themes regarding Muhammad’s wives first found in an earlier novel by Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, which I teach. I do not espouse censorship of any kind, but I do value my right to critique those who abuse the past without regard for its richness or resonance in the present.”