Novel on prophet's wife pulled for fear of backlash

The Jewel of the Medina was to have been released on August 12 by Ballantine Books A romance novel about the child bride of the prophet Mohammed has been withdrawn because its publisher feared possible terrorist acts by Muslim extremists. The Jewel of the Medina was to have been released on August 12 by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, with an eight-city tour for first-time novelist Sherry Jones, 46. But the publishers apparently panicked after a professor in Texas who had been approached for a pre-publication blurb, strenuously objected to the work. Denise Spellberg, who teaches Islamic history at the University of Texas at Austin, later described the novel as "soft core pornography". Jones rejects the charge. "It's ridiculous," she told the Guardian today. "I must be one heck of a writer to have produced a... [read full story]