On her blog [Author!Author!] Sherry Jones said that she has decided to stop her discussion of her controversial book, "The Jewel of Medina". She writes:"Instead of debating the contents of 'The Jewel of Medina', the world seems to be arguing over everything but. People bicker over whether I should have been allowed to publish in the first place. They scream about my "disrespectful" treatment of religious icons. They shout over what they assume are my depictions of pedophilia. I've been called names you wouldn't imagine."
I've been to quite a few blogs where her book has been the topic.More often then not, the 'name calling' has been directed towards Denise Spellberg , the associate professor of history who is alleged to be "the instigator of the trouble." ( In a piece for the Wall Street Journal, Spellberg counters "I Didn't Kill 'The Jewel of Medina'" ).
I know how Jones feels about the name calling.....on one blog, I was the recipient of an atheist's rant on the Blessed Sacrament - an attack that I found so vitriolic that I haven't returned to that particular blog.
Commenting on my previous post,"Anonymous said...
It should be no big deal. THEY have to get over it not us. Was the Roman Catholic Church happy with the publication of "Sex with the Virgin Mary", did they threaten to bomb Amazon.com. It is their problem not ours. We have free speech and we must protect it."
Someone felt this was a particularly strong argument.....a version of this same comment was posted in several places on the Internet by someone going under the name of 'brendan doherty'.
Prior to reading this comment, I had never heard of the book by Charles Webb and I'm not familiar with the reaction to it from the Catholic Church.
Contrary to what so many believe, there have not been acts of violence committed by anyone because of 'The Jewel of Medina'. On her blog, Jones herself, explains "And let's remember: There have been no terrorist threats over THE JEWEL OF MEDINA. Only warnings of possible threats."
My take on this has been that, certainly, Jones has the freedom to say or write whatever she likes just as Random House has the freedom to choose what the company will publish. That being said, the company should have realized from the beginning that Muslims would have found this book objectionable. Judging from the parts I've read, the book is trash and not worth reading. There is no honor in deliberately defaming or insulting anyone.
Jones has written,"So much discussion over a book no one has read!"
True enough........we haven't read the entire book, but a pdf of the book's prologue is available online. I had provided a link to another site that has the pdf, but I decided to put the pdf on my own website so I can be sure it remain available.
That link can be found here:
Prologue-JewelMedina.pdf
Relevant links:
The Tale of The Jewel of Medina
