A controversial novel that was pulled from publication before it even hit the shelves in the United States will be released in Britain next month.

Agence France-Presse reports that The Jewel of Medina by American author Sherry Jones, which is about the Prophet Mohammed and his child bride, will be published by Gibson Square. The publishing house is known for having sold other controversial books, such as Alexander Litvinenko’s Blowing Up Russia and House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger. Gibson Square said it was "imperative" that Jones’s book be available to the public.

Random House earlier this summer announced that it canceled U.S. publication of the novel, which is a fictional account of Mohammed’s relationship with Aisha, his youngest bride. The publishing house said it had been informed that publishing the book could incite violence upon stores that sell it, and others. The book’s release in Serbia was also canceled because of protest from the Muslim community.

The company said it 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." The Guardian notes that Random House was told by security experts and academics that the novel, for which it paid a $100,000 advance, was potentially more incendiary than both Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses and the Danish newspaper cartoons of Mohammad.

Martin Rynja, publishing director at Gibson Square, said, however, that in "an open society there has to be open access to literary works, regardless of fear."

The Washington Post reports that Jones has found other new publishers for her novel in Spain, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Germany and Brazil. In some places the book will come out next month, in others next spring.