The Jewel of Medina and the Cowardly Surrender of Random House
…but I know for a fact that the history of literature and thought will be poorer for its absence…
How exactly does Andrew Klavan know this? Salmon Rushdie’s book was unreadable trash not worth cutting down trees for. What makes Klavan so sure Sherry Jones’s book is any better?
From everything I’ve heard Jones say about her sensitivity to Islamic sensibilities, I would suspect that her book can’t be very honest or very good.
I’m entirely confident that literature will be no poorer for non-publication of Jones’s book. Indeed, I suspect that many of those springing to her defense today–and properly so–will regret their enthusiasm when her book is inevitably published. And Ms. Jones may ultimately gain stature from this affair she may or may not deserve.
It is freedom of expression that is under assault by Islam, not literature. And that has to be dealt with forthrightly and pro-actively.
A good first step would be to see that Denise Spellberg pays a very dear price for her childish and vicious tattle. The regents of the University of Texas need to be bombarded with complaints. Ms. Spellberg is an anti-feminist, anti-democratic, fascists suck-up who should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of academia on a rail.
A healthy second step would be to limit access to American education to the children of ayatollahs, imams and other islamofascists. Thousands of budding Islamist scorpions are currently studying in the US. Their admission to American colleges and universities should hinge on their faithfully answering a set of unambiguous questions about their attitudes toward values we Americans hold dear. They either share our values or they can complete their education in Europe.
The city of Medina in the title of Ms. Jones’s book, incidentally, was a Jewish city at the time of Mohammed. The Jews of Medina were the wealthiest, most literate, learned and cultured people in Arabia. Their conquest and looting by the illiterate prophet of the Arabs is what made the Islamic expansion possible. Absent what he stole from the Jews of Medina, Mohammed’s name would be unknown.
