You Can't Write About Muhammad

Kameron Merritt

09 August 2008

Aug six, 2008 Page A15 Beginning in 2002, Spokane, Wash, columnist Sherry Jones worked weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the youthful better half of the soothsayer Muhammad. This past spring, she commenced plans for an eight-city book tour after the August twelve publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the soothsayer's harem. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts smart discourse about the Muslim world. Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses" the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led on to death threats, riots and the killing of the book's Jap translator, among other horrors. After consulting security gurus and Islam students, Mr Perry related the company decided "to defer publication for the safety of the writer, workers of Random House, bookstores and anybody else who would be concerned in distribution and sale of the novel.". This fable upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely enticing and humanizing way. In Apr, on the lookout for endorsements, Random House sent galleys to writers and students, including Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the Varsity of Texas in Austin. Ms Jones put her on the list as she read Ms Spellberg's book, "Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past : the result of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr.".

In an interview, Ms Spellberg told me the novel is a "very hideous, foolish piece of work." The novel, as an example, contains a scene on the night when Muhammad consummated his wedding with Aisha : "the agony of consummation shortly softened away. To be in his arms, skin to peel, was the bliss I had longed for all my life." Asserts Ms Spellberg : "I walked thru a metal detector to see 'Last Enticement of Christ'" the debatable 1980s film adaptation of a novel that outlined a relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "She thinks there's a terribly real probability of major danger for the building and staff and widespread violence" Ms Garrett wrote. There is in truth a convention of historical fiction in Islam, including such works as "The journeys of Amir Hamza" an epic on the life of Muhammad's uncle. And, for all people who think the life of the soothsayer Muhammad can't include stories of lust, hate and doubt, we need just read the Quran ( 18:110 ) where, it's related, God instructed Muhammad to inform others : "I am just a mortal like you.".