“The Jewel of Medina,” is a novel about A’isha a wife of the Prophet Muhammad. Ballantine Books, a publishing business of Random House, cancelled this publication because they thought that it would offend Muslim extremist. The author, Martin Runja, house was set on fire by three men arrested for terrorism. This book leads us to the 1988 publication by Salman Rushdie, “The Satanic Verses.” This book is also about Muhammad and his wives. When this book was published, it caused a riot outside the bookstore it was opening at. Rushdie had to go into hiding because the Japanese translator of the book was murdered. Thinking about these books, only one thing comes to mind, “Freedom of Speech.” People around the world really don’t have this freedom in their countries. I understand why people attack and protest when someone is writing about their religious figure. I wouldn’t go as far as kill someone, but if they think that is the only way they are going to stop people degrading their religious beliefs then what can we do? We can write our opinions in books, but there is no need to go into detail and down grade some ones religious figures.
New York Times
Issue September 29, 2008
By: Sarah Lyall
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment