Book on Prophet Muhammad's wife dropped

Dear readers, I don’t want to comment on this matter. Read it and make your own judgment.

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about Aisha, the wife of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), saying it could "incite acts of violence."

"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on Aug. 12, as part of a $100,000, two-book deal. An eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday. FULL STORY HERE.

Another one is here:

Serbia pulls "love story" about Islam's prophet (AFP)

A Serbian company has ordered bookshops to withdraw a novel about the Muslim prophet Mohammed's life that has already been halted by U.S. publishers due to fear of protests, reports said Monday.

"The Jewel of Medina" -- a debut novel by U.S. journalist Sherry Jones -- is about the life of Mohammed's wife A'isha. Publisher Random House abandoned plans to release it in the United States earlier this month.

Jones said she wanted to show the "great love story" between Mohammed and Aisha, who is often referred to as Mohammed's favorite wife. "He died with his head on her breast," Jones has said.

Nevertheless, its Serbian distributor, BeoBooks, had 1,000 copies of the novel printed and sent out to bookshops, but ordered their recall after protest from Islamic leaders.

Mufti Muamer Zukorlic, one of Serbia's main Islamic leaders, had compared the book with the controversial Danish cartoons that sparked Muslim outrage and violent protests when published in 2005.

"This is a work that absolutely stopped at nothing in order to desecrate something that all Muslims hold sacred," Zukorlic said in a report by the Serbian broadcaster B92.

BeoBooks chief executive Aleksandar Jasic apologized to Serbia's Muslim community.

"It was not our intention to offend anybody, which is why we have immediately recalled the book from (all) stores and apologized to the Islamic community," he said, adding: "I hope the matter will end there."

Zukorlic later accepted the apology and called for calm, according to the news agencies Tanjug and Beta.

Earlier this month, Random House warned publishers it had received information that "this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence."

The Serbian edition of the book, which follows the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammed at the age of six until his death, was the first to be published in the world, according to local reports.