Kenders' Musings

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

This sounds like a great book. Historical fiction can be exciting, often more exciting than the real thing and can open up a dialog about a period in history so people can discuss the issues arising from events which transpired in the past. In this case opening a discussion with the muslim world about their prophet and his consummation of his marriage to a nine year old girl is sorely needed, as the west as a whole can't wrap their heads around a man who would have sexual relations with a nine year old prepubescent girl.

But that conversatuon isn't going to happen, and neither is the book.

In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

emphasis mine

So what isn't offensive to the muslim community? Oh, that's right....sex with nine year old girls, beheading people, subjugating those who aren't muslim, oppressing women, need I go on?

The real kicker in this story is it wasn't a muslim throwing the wrench into the gears. It was an American Academic named Denise Spellberg, who is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

Can we say DHIMMI? If you can't now you will after this next bit;

On April 30, Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in Ms. Spellberg's classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, got a frantic call from her. "She was upset," Mr. Amanullah recalls. He says Ms. Spellberg told him the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history," and asked him to warn Muslims.

emphasis mine

The University of Texas motto is "What Starts Here Changes the World."They couldn't be more right because if Denise Spellberg had her way we probably would have seen riots, embassy burnings and protests by muslims around the world being angry that someone would dare to take the truth of their "religion" and look at it through the lens of historical fiction.

Let's see what we have so far.

We have an associate professor who specializes in Islamic studies.

She receives an advance copy of historical fiction focusing on the prophet Mohammed's nine year old child bride.

Instead of calling the publisher and saying "Listen, I study these folks for a living and publishing this is really gonna piss 'em off if you publish it" she instead contacts the editor of a popular muslim website and says "Hey, I have an advance copy of a book and it makes fun of muslims so you should warn everyone."

As I said DHIMMI!! In fact I would go so far as to say she is inciting unrest and hatred. But what can one expect from a graduate of Columbia University? Columbia is a well know bastion of far left thought and hatred for all things American. Apparently they are also now teaching Dhimmitude and appeasement. Maybe we should move the whole campus to France.

At the end of the day the FACT that Mohamed had sex with a nine year old girl is hanging there quietly, causing many people to wonder why anyone would willingly support a religion started by a murderous caravan raider who molested a prepubescent girl. The chance for us to open a dialog with muslims over this slipped away when Denise Spellberg went running to her muslim friend like clueless, appeasing idiot hoping to prove her loyalty to a group of backwards thinking 8th century zealots who, if given half a chance, would have her in a burkha before you could say "enshallah master."

Drop Associate Professor Denise Spellberg a line at the email address below and let her know how thankful you are there are people such as herself giving us all great examples of what clueless dhimmitude looks like.

dams@mail.utexas.edu