Sign in to wowOwow

Enter the email address that you used when registering at wowOwow.
The password field is case sensitive. Click here if you have forgotten your password.

Please register for wowOwow

Newsletter subscriptions
Sign up to receive wowOwow's weekly newsletter and get our best picks delivered right to your inbox. Our newsletter content is hand-picked by the wowOwow editorial team and provides the top features, news, and commentary from our site. Subscribing to our newsletter is free and safe. We will never share your email or other information with a third-party without your direct consent.
By registering, you indicate that you have read and agree
with our privacy policy and terms of service.

Politics | 10/02/2008 1:50 pm

Release of Novel About Islam Postponed After Publisher's House Set on Fire

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
Amazon.co.uk

The book that was held back from publication by Random House in the U.S. (amid assumptions that if published, it would ignite Muslim extremists to react with violence) now might not be published in London, either.

The controversial novel Jewel of Medina, about the relationship between Prophet Mohammad and A’isha, his youngest bride, was "imperative" to publish, said one London-based publishing director. Now, the publisher is reportedly rethinking his stance after his home office was set on fire early Sunday. Publishing director Martin Rynja’s house, which also serves as Gibson Square’s headquarters, in North London, was set on fire early Saturday morning. There is speculation that the blaze was connected with the upcoming release of Sherry Jones’s controversial novel.

wowOwow orignally reported that Rynja wasn’t backing down after the threat. However, today, UK’s The Mail reports that his plans are now "in suspended animation." Alan Jessop of Compass, the publisher’s sales representative, said to The Mail that Rynja is reflecting and taking advice on what the "best foot forward is."

12 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Kryssi K
Ohhh swell - more unhinged religious fanatical extremism. (And don’t think it doesn’t happen over here with “our” religion.) Someone tell me, what is so spectacular about ANY of these religions that people literally lose their minds over? Please. I’ve been, ahem, dying to know. I wonder how many times I’ll have to repeat this in my lifetime - “It’s just a BOOK for crap’s sake!”
By Kryssi K on 10/02/2008 4:22 pm
gulliver fourmyle
and our alleged separation of church and state—-‘excess religiousity’ is a Big ‘red-flag’ when hunting kooks—-and when it gets ‘wild’ is both Muslim nations And Israel—-are placed together—-recipe for trouble—-as both are ‘religious entities’—-do i like Islam’s status for women? absurd—-what are they afraid of? being mr. dinky? do i like Israel’s ‘mad-dog’ treatment of Palestine? nope—-don’t like robbery—-‘never steal anything small’?—-all could have been avoided—-but never on a planet—-so call me a kook—-but look at the physics/life-sciences for 1/2 century—-you will find ‘disorder-linked-to-mass’, as a planet—-or as Biily Joel said. ‘We didn’t start the fire, but it’s been burnin’ since the earth was turning’. so it will be, ‘till we leave—-so to look for any improvement in the human condition, here, seems rather futile—-any element of the ‘argument’? please ask——
By gulliver fourmyle on 10/02/2008 10:21 pm
gulliver fourmyle
The Pen Is Mightier…’—-so there’s your answer—-‘Books’ strike fear in the irrational, for this reason—-Muslim fanatics know this, as Nancy Reagan crushing a Harvard’s ‘The Fourth Imperative’, which proved the ‘war-on-drugs’ doomed vs. Mother Nature—-Nancy did not like any proven to her insane, ‘just-say-no’ ignorant policy. to say ‘It’s just a book’? i feel that overlooks ‘books-amongst-nuts’ will draw fire. you seem one of the rare sane—-so to you, or i, ‘it’s just a book’—-but as history has shown, from Muslims to Nazis, The Inquisition—- burning any opposition in print? or said authors? old story—-
By gulliver fourmyle on 10/03/2008 6:10 pm
beverly linens
The question I want answered is, what in the world was Mohammad’s relationship like with his mother, that he would write a book that would allow such a horrible life for women.
By beverly linens on 10/02/2008 4:45 pm
Eliza Dodd
I cant wait to read it ….thats what life is all about ….BOOKS ! and more Books …check one out ….open your minds ….come out of the cave ….see what the world see’s ….BEE ALIVE ….
By Eliza Dodd on 10/02/2008 6:32 pm
Sandbee (FB) 54
I will never understand all of the wars and atrocities done in the name of religion.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/02/2008 6:38 pm
gulliver fourmyle
Sandbee, read my posts—-it doesn’t have to be religion—-‘living’ in a field (simply ‘area of influence’), a field of disorder—-‘it’s always something’. We were ‘made to run’—-best get at it—-Huge economic boost—-as those building ‘defense’ would now have what Teddy R. wanted—-‘a nation continually at war’—-in this case not vs. one-another—-vs. space—-our only hope, as we live in a ‘shooting-gallery-lethal impact-zone’, giant Super-Volcanoes, solar flares, gamma ray bursters, nearby super-novae, the Green House, retro-viruses, ‘super-bugs’ etc. one hairy place—-as an eagle’s egg needs a safe hatching place, once able, mom tosses them from the nest—-fly or die—- a main lesson of Bio-101—-‘Mass Extinctions Are the Rule, Not the Exception, on Earth’—-the atrocities? ‘they go with the place’. leave it? they go away—-
By gulliver fourmyle on 10/02/2008 11:11 pm
Sandbee (FB) 54
It is just that to me if people were truly religious, they are not the ones who should be doing these things “In the Name of God” which ever god. I am not person who goes for Sunday morning church service religion, I have a belief in caring for people and it doesn’t coincide with this behavior.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/03/2008 6:26 am
gulliver fourmyle
whichever god’—so true—-there is some ‘no-thing’ that we’ve all witnessed—even the Native American ‘great-spirit’ falls short in their philosopher’s view—-so they term it ‘that for which there are no words’—-left with such conondrum, they had to call it something, so thousands of years prior to any known ‘religion’ they settled on ‘Nagual’—-a wonderful treatment exists in C. Castaneda’s 1st 3 books—-then he ‘sold-out’—-started cranking out bunk—-that Malibu manse was expensive—a ‘cult’ grew around him—-mostly ‘rip-off’ artist—- his best treatment, IMHO, is his ‘Tales of Power’, and ‘Journey to Ixtlan’—-great reads—-‘Nagualism’ is considered the oldest continuous ‘belief-system’—-not a religion—-as you may imagine, trying to understand the concept is ‘mind-boggling’—-but one does grasp the concept of ‘our-place’ is but one of an infinite ‘set’—-and there are no commonalities from one to the others—-yet when one ‘enters’ such, as at ‘conception’ to the ‘set-point’ we call ‘space/time’, we quickly learn its rules, which ‘dazzle’ us to our greater ‘selves’—-whatever such may be—you may never know, from ‘here’. my chief ‘beef’ w/Castaneda’s treatment is his scorn of Jesus—whose teaching comes down to ‘love-one-another’—and i feel Jesus was clearly not a religious event—rather a philosophy—how He got mired in humanity’s lunacy, but one more example of ‘who then is sane’. ie: he said he was ‘the son of man’, not God—where this ‘god gave his only son’ came from? you tell me—he never claimed such—i feel ‘religion’ an odd form of insanity, whose source is ‘fear-of-death’, ‘the unknown’, whatever—‘love one another’—-that makes sense.
By gulliver fourmyle on 10/03/2008 2:16 pm
Sandbee (FB) 54
you write interesting gull - read Journey to Ixtlan many years ago along with many others that I should re-read as so much has gone to areas that I don’t visit enough in my brain.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/03/2008 9:32 pm
Diana T
Such a shame that these extremists weren’t dealt with the moment they hit another country’s shores. Now, they are so entrenched in the UK that I don’t think there is much England can do.
By Diana T on 10/02/2008 7:38 pm
gulliver fourmyle
i feel it unwise to underestimate Brits—-as a hornet’s nest—-when struck? best duck——
By gulliver fourmyle on 10/02/2008 11:24 pm