A new book may enrage conservative and liberals alike
Random House's cancellation of "The Jewel of Medina" ignited a furor last month - all when a Op-Ed article in the Wall Street Journal
detailed how cowed publishing executives had pulled the historical
novel over fears it could push Muslim fanatics into a murderous frenzy
just like during Europe's infamous "Cartoon Riots," and after
publication ten years ago of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses." The
canceled novel, as author Sherry Jones described it, was a miraculously
researched "love story" about the Prophet Muhammad and his favorite
wife, the child-bride A'shia.
Jones,
a 46-year-old journalist, had spent some six years working on her debut
novel and its sequel. She'd gotten a $100,000 advance from Random
House. She'd expected to go on a nation-wide book tour last month for
her novel, a Book of the Month pick.
It never happened, of course.
Random
House executives, egged on by a politically correct University of Texas
professor of Middle Eastern studies in Austin, decided "The Jewel of
Medina" was too risky to handle. And after the WSJ's attention-getting
Op-Ed, Jones quickly found herself in the center of a controversy over
a book that, much to her irritation, nobody had even read! The episode
provided a "window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse
about the Muslim world," Asra Q. Nomani, a college journalism professor
and Muslim, wrote in her tell-all Op-Ed.
Random
House aside, some publishing houses remain tenaciously wedded to
Western Civilization's values -- even it means offending some Muslims
and university professors. Next month, the first English-language
editions of "The Jewel of Medina" will be available in book stores.
Beaufort Books, an independent New York publishing house (the one
publishing O.J. Simpson's demented "If I did it") will bring out the
"Jewel of Medina" in America. And in Britain, it will be published by
London's Gibson Square, a prestigious publisher with a formidable list
of authors and titles, many appealing to conservatives, including
presidential candidate John McCain's book "Faith of My Fathers."
"I
was completely bowled over by the novel and the moving love story it
portrays," Gibson Square publishing director Martin Rynja announced
last week. "I immediately felt that it was imperative to publish it. In
an open society there has to be open access to literary works,
regardless of fear."
Gibson
Square's announcement came a few weeks after a Serbian publisher pulled
1,000 Serbian-language editions of the novel, and apologized for
releasing it, after a Muslim group expressed anger over the novel. In Spain, Italy and Hungary, publishing rights have been lined up, too.
"Jewel of Medina," however, may be engulfed in a new controversy, at least if comments Jones made to American Thinker are
anything to go by. Last month, Spellberg, the politically correct
professor, was widely cast as a villain after her edict that "Jewel of
Medina" was inflammatory, unfair to Islam, and unfit to publish. But
political conservatives may now have reason to turn their scorn on
Jones, criticizing her political views and, apparently, what is an
idealized treatment of Islam. Jones provided written comments to
questions that were submitted to her by e-mail. (An edited Q&A is
provided below.)
What promoted Jones to write "The Jewel of Medina" and a sequel?
Her
inspiration was the 9/11 terror attacks, which prompted her to delve
more deeply into Islam. The terror attacks, of course, prompted many
Americans to ponder the dark side of contemporary political Islam, not
to mention backwardness of much of the Middle East. Jones -- a
self-described feminist brought up as a Baptist - related that Islam's
oppression of women caused her to take a scholarly journey into the
religion's earliest period.
And to her surprise, she liked what she saw!
Jones found an Islam she could relate to, an Islam she could understand.
In its beginnings, Islam did not oppress woman, she concluded. Women
were liberated! Early Islam's women, she said, prayed side-by-side
their men; fought with them in battle; and even advised them on
important issues, she said.
And
the most remarkable women of all was A'isha. She "particularly
captivated me with her wit, intelligence, generosity, courage, and
leadership," Jones said.
The
Prophet Muhammad's favourite and youngest wife, to be sure, elicits
much controversy today, most of it revolving around her precise age
when she married Muhammad; not to mention her age when their marriage
was consummated. Some apologists for men who enjoy sex with pubescent
girls say A'isha's age is irrelevant: Muhammad, after all, was merely
following God's command.
Jones,
for her part, praises A'isha as a brave warrior, scholar, and a valued
adviser to Muhammad. She even finds A'isha inspiring, considers her a
kindred soul-mate.
All
in all, an aspiring novelist could not dream up a more compelling
heroine than A'isha. Accordingly, Jones related, "I felt driven to tell
(A'isha's) story because it empowered me, and I hoped -- and still hope
-- it will have the same effect on others, male and female, Muslim and
non-Muslim."
Inevitably,
some Muslims - perhaps taking their cue from Columbia University's late
Edward Said and his iconic book "Orientialism" -- have complained no
white Western woman has any business writing about Islam and A'isha;
that such people never could be objective because they by nature are
racist and presumptuous, brimming with cultural superiority.
It
would be hard to make such claims against Jones, however, for she seems
not to embrace any particular religious viewpoint. Certainly, she
demonstrates none of the self-confidence many if not most Muslims
express about their own religion and culture.
"I
embrace all religions now as containing Truth," Jones explained. "I
believe God is Love. My years as a devout Christian helped me in the
writing of my books because I still remember what it is to pray
constantly and ask myself what God would want of me in any particular
situation. I still rely on my spiritual self -- my inner A'isha -- for
comfort, wisdom, and moral guidance."
A'isha,
as it so happens, also is an endearing to which Denise Spellberg, the
caustic university professor, has devoted much scholarship. And
certainly, there's nothing wrong with this: A'isha was surely a
remarkable woman for her time, even if she was on the wrong side of
history, based on what the Muslim world looks like today. All in all,
something odd is going on in respect to A'isha groupies among
Westerners; and that, namely, is the enthusiasm with which so many
willing embrace and identify with strange foreign cultures. And the
more exotic, primitive, and cruel, then so much the better!
The Bible, to be sure, is full of strong, remarkable, and intriguing women
who played major roles in shaping Christianity and Western culture. If
it's military leaders that Jones fancies, what about the Old
Testament's Deborah? Commanding
an Army of 10,000 Israelites, she faced "900 chariots of Iron" when
defeating the Canaanite general Sisera. Well, maybe Jones was home sick
when that story was taught in Sunday School. For her, there's only
A'isha: She becomes her kindred soul-mate.
Perhaps Jones says such things -- not because she deeply believes them -- but because it's what she believes will sell.
Make what you will of such muddle; of what might be called part of the
cultural and spiritual malaise afflicting so many self-doubting
Westerners these days, especially in Europe where low birth rates
represent a kind of cultural suicide, the subject of Mark Steyn's
depressing bestseller, "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know it."
The story of Jones and her novel gets stranger, though. Yes, it gets downright weird!
Understandably,
Jones she was upset over Random House's self-censorship. Her dreams of
making it as a big-time novelist were in jeopardy after Random House's
cancellation. Perhaps the veteran journalist, who'd been reporting from
Spokane, Washington, for the Bureau of National Affairs, would be
permanently trapped in the old journalism grind.
So whom did she blame for her bad luck, for Random House's cancellation? Incredibly, it was not Random House -- first and foremost. No, Jones blamed a far more sinister force...the Bush administration!
As Jones explained:
We
in the U.S., particularly in New York where the Sept. 11, 2001 World
Trade Center attack occurred, are living in a culture of fear brought
on by the World Trade Center attack and fear mongering from the U.S.
government. Other countries are more accustomed, I think, to strife and
war, since they are not geographically isolated as we are.
Don't
get me wrong; I'm not naive. I know there are violent factions within
the Muslim community. However, if I let fear stop me from speaking and
writing and trying to make a difference in the world, what kind of life
would I be living? There are things worse than death. And I have never
believed my books -- written with respect and regard for Islam and its
Prophet -- would incite violence.
Jones
right-to-publish rallying cry is, of course, what you'd expect from any
responsible writer. But it's obviously wacky beyond belief to blame the
Bush administration for Random House's self-censorship. Responding to
her display of Bush Derangement Syndrome, I
dashed off an e-mail to her in a pique: "It's interesting that you
blame the Bush administration's "fear mongering" for Random House's
decision. I'm surprised this angle did not come out in the long WSJ
piece, which had set the tone for this whole controversy."
Jones replied:
No,
I blame the culture of fear we live in, which is due in part to the
Bush administration's "fear mongering." Please don't confuse the two,
and I'm sorry if I was unclear in that regard. Random House made its
decision because of very real fear inspired by the 9/11 attacks (they
do, after all, live in New York); I'm just saying that our entire
culture now walks in fear that's fueled in part by "orange alerts,"
loss of privacy, rhetoric about an "axis of evil," etc. that we have
dealt with since that horrible day. Random House's decision is the
latest in a series of decisions made out of fear of offending Muslims
(such as the Dunkin' Donuts/Rachael Ray fiasco) which, if I were a
Muslim, I would find offensive in itself.
Jones'
reference to Rachael Ray concerned a controversy that the television
personality touched off by wearing an Arab headscarf (like the one
favoured by the late and wily Palestinian strongman and terrorist
Yasser Arafat) in her Dunkin' Donuts television commercial.
How
might yet another controversy affect sales of "The Jewel of Medina"?
Call me a cynic, but I'm betting it will be a best seller.