Green Energy
The (UK) Independent's astute and never-less-than-interesting columnist Johann Hari is condemning cowardice. The cowardice that has meant that we are not allowed to read a book. The cowardice that has allowed Islamic threats – even if never uttered – to ensure that we are not allowed to read a book.
On my regular blog at Pink Triangle I got quite hot under the collar last week when this story broke. It's not hard to get hot under the collar when religion starts to dictate what we can and cannot read. It's the tale of Sherry Jones's book The Jewel of Medina. Random House pulled it – and have now pulped it, according to Hari – because it dealt with the prepubescent wife of Mohammed, some forty-odd years her senior. She was married at six, and the marriage was consummated – if that's what you can call a relationship in which a man of fifty-three forces himself on a nine-year-old girl – three years later.
Hari points out that, while you can read this story in the Koran and the Hadith (subsequent teachings based on the Koran), you can't now read it in Jones's book. And that comes down to cowardice. And it's time, says the headline above his Independent piece, we stopped "being such cowards about Islam".
You can read the article plus extra bits on Hari's own excellent website.
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Green Energy
Are we cowards when it comes to Islam?
The (UK) Independent's astute and never-less-than-interesting columnist Johann Hari is condemning cowardice. The cowardice that has meant that we are not allowed to read a book. The cowardice that has allowed Islamic threats – even if never uttered – to ensure that we are not allowed to read a book.
On my regular blog at Pink Triangle I got quite hot under the collar last week when this story broke. It's not hard to get hot under the collar when religion starts to dictate what we can and cannot read. It's the tale of Sherry Jones's book The Jewel of Medina. Random House pulled it – and have now pulped it, according to Hari – because it dealt with the prepubescent wife of Mohammed, some forty-odd years her senior. She was married at six, and the marriage was consummated – if that's what you can call a relationship in which a man of fifty-three forces himself on a nine-year-old girl – three years later.
Hari points out that, while you can read this story in the Koran and the Hadith (subsequent teachings based on the Koran), you can't now read it in Jones's book. And that comes down to cowardice. And it's time, says the headline above his Independent piece, we stopped "being such cowards about Islam".
You can read the article plus extra bits on Hari's own excellent website.
- The Dark Side Of Dubai: Part 1
Dubai has been in the news for a long time now for various reasons. Many a times we hear about the “city with the tallest building in the world”. At times we hear things that tell us that there is a city in the Middle East that was built “unlike...
- How Muslims Ensure More Publicity For What They'd Prefer To Hide
Sherry Jones's Aisha novel, The Jewel of Medina, has been withdrawn from bookshops in Serbia, lest it upset the religious sensitivities of religiously oversensitive Muslims. Indeed, there have been complaints from a "leader" there. The meticulously...
- Salman Rushdie Calls Out Random House For Censoring Book On Mohammed And Ayish
From the Gothamist: Rushdie and his smokin' hot babe Padma Lakshmi Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial Satanic Verses, said that he was disappointed in his publisher Random House for pulling an upcoming novel about the Prophet Mohammed....
- You Are Not Permitted To Write About Mohammed
Muslims continue on in their idolatry of the prophet Mohammed. The story of Ayisha must not be written, because it mentions Mohammed. Do Muslims worship Mohammed? I thought they were "Monotheists" who only worship Allah? From Astute Bloggers: "Starting...
- Mohammed's Revenge
Mohammed's early experiences attempting to spread his religion in the city of Mecca left him a bitter man. By the time his religion began to catch fire in Medina, he was intent on revenge against anyone who would dare "humiliate" him by rejecting...