The Washington Post has a good article on the brouhaha surrounding the publishing (or not) of a novel about the Prophet Mohammed and his young wife Aisha.
A Book Too Hot Off The Presses
Random House Feared Radical Muslim Backlash
Michelle BoorsteinOnce upon a time, Sherry Jones was a Montana newspaper reporter who dreamed she could contribute to world peace with a novel about the prophet Muhammad and his feminist leanings. Then she wrote it. Today? She’s the target of a Serbian mufti and a Middle Eastern studies professor with a lawyer.
Life has been a roller coaster lately for Jones, 46, who went from being a Book-of-the-Month Club pick to seeing her novel dropped by Random House, which said in a statement it had received “cautionary advice” that the fictionalized story of one of Muhammad’s wives might “incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”
A Random House spokeswoman said she could not think of any other time the company had canceled a book because of such fears.
Jones and her novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” are subjects of debate from Egypt to Italy to Serbia, where 1,000 Serbian-language copies were printed before the local publisher backed out, too.
Finger-pointing abounds. Feminist Muslims are blaming censorship; Jones and her agent are blaming the Middle Eastern studies professor; and Random House is saying that Jones — who says she doesn’t fear Islamic retaliation — should honor a non-disclosure agreement and stop talking about their dispute.
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August:21:2008 - 09:54
Interesting. The article quotes Asra Nomani as saying the west places too much emphasis on the prophet and Aisha as sexual beings. It might be the one time I agree with the neo-con star.
The obsession with the West with the sexuality of the prophet and his wives, and Muslims in general, is just another part of hundreds of years of Orientalism.
Sometimes Muslims are over sexed in these dialogues, other times it would seem they are not sexed enough.
It really speaks more about the West itself than it does about Islam and Muslims.
August:21:2008 - 09:54
The West has lots of problems about sex and sexuality, that’s a given. But then, what culture doesn’t? Sex is powerful; sex is not rational; sex is difficult to control, however you define ‘control’.
The West, however, is also interested in (fascinated by? repulsed by? curious about?) the stories of a nine-year-old being married to a 40-year-old. That’s not only salacious interest.
But, according to this article, there’s no directly described sex in the book anyway. Overtones, undercurrents, back-text… sure: they have to be there, given the subject matter.
August:21:2008 - 09:54
John,
I dont buy that. If it had an interest in nothing more than a 9 year old married to 40 year olds, they’d be looking for the historical context that the marriage took place in, as well as any other incidents of the same during that time.
The fact is that marriages of this type were very common then. It shouldnt be hard to find more historical examples, so why dwell on the founder of a religion?
The fact is that it plays on the Orientalism of the West.
August:21:2008 - 09:54
Ok, I think the rap against ‘Orientalism in the West’ is vastly over-hyped. While that may be Edward Said’s legacy, it’s mostly a dishonest one.
Of course a novel is going to find an angle to distinguish itself from the tens of thousands of other novels trying to find a place on a publisher’s list. We don’t buy novels about obscure historical figures unless there’s something really splashy about it. It’s far easier to take a famous person and find some detail in his/her life to write about.
According the quotes from the author of this book, she’s not anti-Islamic; she doesn’t play the ‘pedophobe’ angle that many Islamophobes do. It sounds as though she’s trying to do exactly what you suggest by putting the times into context, the goal of most historical novels.
I haven’t read the book. It might be good; it might be awful. Without question, though, having a publisher withhold release because of fears of Muslim backlash is awful. Perfectly legal, understand, within the terms of whatever contract they have with the writer, but a horrible example of not standing up for freedom of expression. That involves standing up for the right for bad, stupid, mistaken, or unwise expression, too.
August:21:2008 - 09:54
Amen! As an “Oriental,” my biggest problem with Said was his habit of blaming all the problems of our civilizations on the West. I was recently reading a book by one of his disciples where he argues that the Indian caste system was really a product of Britain’s divide and rule policy. Get a grip! The problem of caste is centuries old! Long before Britain evolved out of living in mud huts!