Garbanzo Toons

Freedom of Speech?

Random House has declined to publish a novel by writer, Sherry Jones. It was called The Jewel of Medina. It was about Mohammed's child bride, Aisha. In a cowardly act of self-censorship, Random House dumped the novel after word got around to Muslim websites.

Random House said yesterday that it had been advised by a number of Islamic scholars and security experts that the novel was offensive to Muslims and that "it could incide acts of violence by a small radical segment".

There they area again, that "small radical segment", making all of those fabled moderate Muslims seem like they're nothing but a bunch of demented barbaric savages. I'm not sure it was something I would have read, well actually, I'm sure I would have ignored it.

The novel is a luridly written amalgam of bodice-ripper and historical fiction centred on Aisha, the favourite wife of the prophet Muhammad. "Married at nine to the much-older Muhammad, Aisha uses her wits, her courage, and her sword to defend her first-wife status even as Muhammad marries again and again, taking 12 wives and concubines in all," the summary reads.

At one point the novel imagines the consummation of the marriage between Muhammad and Aisha: "The pain of consummation soon melted away. Muhammad was so gentle. I hardly felt the scorpion's sting. To be in his arms, skin to skin, was the bliss I had longed for all my life."

But,

"It was my hope that my book would develop empathy for this other culture," she said. "It has always rankled me the way history focuses on men and wars and men's politics and leaves women out. I wanted to honour the women in Muhammad's life by giving them a voice."

That was her first mistake, trying to give Muslim women a voice. Muslim men have have kept that impulse under control for 1300 years. Women are not to be honored, they're to be used . . . by men. That doesn't mean the book should be censored. Unfortunately, having given up all of our beliefs, we become slaves to anyone who does have strong beliefs and is willing to impose them on us. Who's going to battle the "small radical segment" on this one? Not Random House.

But Muslims aren't the only wants out to stifle freedom of speech. There is also a group calling themselves Accountable Americans. Michelle Malkin has the skinny on these thugs. They call Republicans fascists, but they use strong arm, Mafia tactics to shut down contrasting political views.

I'd like to say that attacks on free speech are coming from all sides, but they're only coming from one, just different heads of the same tyrannical monster. If they ever do win against us, the leftist tools will be quickly dealt with by their Islamic masters.

Labels: Accountable America, books, censorship, islam, Random House

posted by Harry @ 5:09 PM