Muslim gang firebombs publisher of Allah novel, Martin Rynja

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Posted by Timesonline on 22:34:02 2008/09/27

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"seg0=" + rsinetsegs[0] +";" : ""; for (var i = 1; i hbx.pndef="title";//DEFAULT PAGE NAME hbx.ctdef="full";//DEFAULT CONTENT CATEGORY Culture+ The new rewards programme for subscribers Navigation - link to other main sections from here Skip Navigation Poncy little bits of ponced-up ponce, served on poncy plates in a poncified room AA Gill Send your views News Comment Business Money Sport Life & Style Travel Driving Arts & Ents Archive Our Papers Site Map UK News World News Politics Weather Photo Galleries Tech & Web Times Online TV Topics Environment Mobile RSS Where am I? Home News UK News MY PROFILE SHOP JOBS PROPERTY CLASSIFIEDS From The Sunday Times September 28, 2008 Muslim gang firebombs publisher of Allah novel, Martin Rynja David Leppard div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } Scotland Yard's counter-terrorist command yesterday foiled an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to kill the publisher of a forthcoming novel featuring sexual encounters between the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride. Early yesterday armed undercover officers arrested three men after a petrol bomb was pushed through the door of the north London home of the book’s publisher. The Metropolitan police said the target of the assassination plot, the Dutch publisher Martin Rynja, had not been injured. The suspected terror gang was being followed by undercover police and the fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed down the front door. Related Links Captors offer up British hostage body British hostages in Iraq to be ‘held for years’, captors warn Multimedia Captors say hostage committed suicide The foiled terrorist attack recalled the death threats and uproar 20 years ago following the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and the worldwide protests that followed the publication in a Danish newspaper in 2005 of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam, in which more than 100 people died. Security officials believe Rynja was targeted for assassination because his firm, Gibson Square, is preparing to publish a romantic novel about Aisha, child bride of the Prophet Muhammad. The Jewel of Medina, by the first-time American author Sherry Jones, describes an imaginary sex scene between the prophet and his 14-year-old wife. It was withdrawn from publication in America last month after its publisher there, Random House, said it feared a violent reaction by “a small radical segment” of Muslims. It said “credible and unrelated sources” had warned that the book could incite violence. Random House reacted after Islamic scholars objected to its contents, saying it treated the wife of the Prophet as a sex object. One of them, Denise Spellberg, of the University of Texas at Austin, described the novel as “soft-core pornography”, referring to a scene in which Muhammad consummates his marriage to Aisha. She called it “a declaration of war” and a “national security issue”. At the time, her warnings were dismissed by the author. “Anyone who reads the book will not be offended,” said Jones. “I wrote the book with the utmost respect for Islam.” However, Jones admitted receiving death threats after the book was withdrawn. It was soon after this that the Met appears to have received a tip-off that the British publisher who had subsequently agreed to print it could be the target of an attack. A Met spokesman said three men had been arrested in “a preplanned intelligence-led operation” at about 2.25am on Saturday. Two of the suspects were arrested in the street outside Rynja’s four-storey townhouse in Lonsdale Square, Islington, while the third was stopped by officers in an armed vehicle near Angel Tube station. They were being questioned yesterday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, a spokesman said. Rynja, 44, could not be contacted yesterday. He is believed to be under police guard. Yesterday, Natasha Kern, Jones’s agent, said she was shocked to learn of the attack. She said the book had been misinterpreted by its critics and did not contain sex scenes, as had been alleged. “I honestly believe that if people read the book they will see it is not disrespectful of Muhammad, and moderate Muslims will not be offended. I don’t want anyone to risk their lives but we could never imagine that there would be some madmen who would do something like this. I’m so sad about this act of terrorism. Moderate Muslims will suffer because of a few radicals.” Kern said it was too early for her to comment on whether the book should be withdrawn. “That’s up to Martin, and I still need to absorb the fact that he was at risk. I’m just so glad he has not been hurt.” Residents said they saw armed police break down the door of Rynja’s house, helped by firefighters. Francesca Liebowitz, 16, a neighbour, said: “The police couldn’t get the door open so the fire brigade battered it down.” Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said: “I was woken at about 3am and I looked out the window and I saw several unmarked cars with what I now think were police officers in them. These officers came out of the cars and there was huge screaming and shouting. Some of the police officers were carrying sub-machineguns. “I then saw a small fire at the bottom of the door at the house. I heard the police officers shout and scream and try to get neighbours out of the house.” The Jewel of Medina is due to be published next month. 0) { offset = CookieString.indexOf(search) if (offset != -1) { offset += search.length end = CookieString.indexOf(";", offset) if (end == -1) end = CookieString.length result = unescape(CookieString.substring(offset, end)) } } return result } /* set the cookie string in cookie */ function setCookie (name, value, lifespan) { var cookietext = name + "=" + escape(value) if (lifespan != null) { var today=new Date() var expiredate = new Date() expiredate.setTime(today.getTime() + 1000*60*60*24*lifespan) cookietext += "; expires=" + expiredate.toGMTString() } document.cookie = cookietext return null } function fDisplayCaptchaError(){ document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").innerHTML = " Error: Incorrect captcha "; } /* validating whether required fields are being entered before submitted */ function PostingValidate(objForm) { // if remember me is checked, the information is saved into the cookies if(objForm.remember_me.checked == true){ setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_body',objForm.body.value,30); setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_name',objForm.name.value,30); setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_email',objForm.email.value,30); setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_city',objForm.city.value,30); setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_countryState',objForm.countryState.value,30); setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_remember_me',objForm.remember_me.checked,30); } else{ setCookie('TimesOnlinecomment_remember_me',objForm.remember_me.checked,30); } // seting the title to article headline so that the moderator get to know on which article, comment is made objForm.title.value = "Muslim gang firebombs publisher of Allah novel, Martin Rynja"; errorString = ''; testFlag = true; if(objForm.body.value.length=="0"){ objForm.body.focus(); document.getElementById("label_your_view").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("label_your_view").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; testFlag = false; errorString = ' * You haven\'t entered a comment'; } else { document.getElementById("label_your_view").className = ''; document.getElementById("label_your_view").style.fontWeight = 'normal'; } if(objForm.name.value.length=="0"){ objForm.email.focus(); testFlag = false; document.getElementById("label_name").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("label_name").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; errorString += ' * Please enter your name'; } else { document.getElementById("label_name").className = ''; document.getElementById("label_name").style.fontWeight = 'normal'; } if(objForm.email.value.length=="0"){ objForm.body.focus(); testFlag = false; document.getElementById("label_email").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("label_email").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; errorString += ' * Please enter your e-mail'; } else { if(objForm.email.value.indexOf("@",1)==-1){ document.getElementById("label_email").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("label_email").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; testFlag = false; errorString += ' * Please enter a valid e-mail'; } else{ document.getElementById("label_email").className = ''; document.getElementById("label_email").style.fontWeight = 'normal'; } } if(objForm.city.value.length=="0"){ objForm.body.focus(); testFlag = false; document.getElementById("label_town_fs_city").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("label_town_fs_city").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; errorString += ' * Please enter your city'; } else { document.getElementById("label_town_fs_city").className = ''; document.getElementById("label_town_fs_city").style.fontWeight = 'normal'; } /* //Commented out Captcha functionality if(objForm.captcha.value.length=="0"){ objForm.body.focus(); testFlag = false; errorString += ' * Please type the letters in the \'Are you human?\' section'; } */ if (testFlag == false) { document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").className = 'color-bd0000'; document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").style.fontWeight = 'bold'; document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").innerHTML = " Error: "+errorString+" "; return false; } else { return true; document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").className = ''; document.getElementById("enter-view-comment-error-container").style.fontWeight = 'normal'; } } var sReadAllComments = ""; //-- Have your say To be honest the only religion ALL you guys really believe in and willing to die for is MONEY.. yes thats what you spend most of your time making worshiping, thinking about, keeping, saving , and dying for... MONEY. aaaahhhh thank god.. everyting else is a myth Paul , manchester, What they have achieved is a wider circulation than this book might ever have got had they not done anything. I hope when they have completed their prison sentences that they will be deported back to one of their Islamic paradises. Alan Lewis, Bangkok, Thailand Muhammad had a child bride? That's disgusting! If it was today he would be arrested for pedophily. Fabio C, London, uk Well at least Scotland Yard is doing a reasonable job in the Counter Terrorism aspect it would seem.. Regarding the book, the merest hint of insult to Islam will lead to death and destruction. It matters not that it actually DID insult Islam or not. Kazuki, London, UK So What's new? Aisha was 6 years old when she married Mohamed? The marriage was consummated when she reached puberty at age 9 (not 14), he was 53 years at that time. Per Hadith by Bukhari (Bukhari is regarded as the most faithful and dependable of all transmitters of Muhammad's life) Faqi , London, UK Here we go again, freedom of speech under attack because someone is 'offended'. It's not enough to burn books let's kill the publisher and burn his house down. Ironic as it may sound we need to have zero tolerance of these fanatics. Ian Burgess, Bristol, Before the Islamophobes start screaming for internment camps and forcing the non-values of Blighty on the moderate Muslim majority, just countenance for a calm moment the thought that there are moronic Muslims, just as there are equally moronic Christians, Jews, agnostics and atheists. Mark, Doncaster, Paul, London, Don't include climate change atheists in your list! Climate change IS the latest religion. Nick, Melbourne, Australia 'the prophet and his 14-year-old wife' - I thought the poor kid was NINE years old when Muhammad consummated the marriage? Emily Carter, London, UK Ain't religion great? If that book isn't a best seller now....... Martyn Taylor, Swindon, England So, er, a book about Muhammad and Aisha is an "Allah novel"? I thought thinking of various semihistorical figures as divine while still claiming monotheism was rather a Christian thing. Philip, Dundee, Paul of London You forgot to mention "Holocaust Deniers". No one denies the climate changes. Don't put people who deny "Anthropogenic Global Warming" opponents in the same category. Believers in forecasts by climate "computer programmers" are the unscientific ones. Garbage in Garbage out. Kevin , Brisbane , Australia They should give it out free. Muslims lving in democracies have got to realise that just as they like to mock others, in a democracy they will be open to criticism as well. Just to make a point I intend buying this book. Time for the Government to stop pandering to all religious nutters J Mathews, Glasgow , Scotland If what Denise Spellberg a scholar said that it will incite violence as it will offend then to be honest, as a moderate muslim I would be offended, once it is an act to get a reaction and now they have it and Islam is yet again painted in bad light as a result of direct provocation. 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