Remember the Wall Street Journal op-ed we told you about, in which it was explained how one hysterical American professor of Islamic studies, Denise Spellberg, “warned” Random House that the novel they were about to publish about the life of Muhammad’s wife Aisha maybe might incite widespread violence, just like Rushie’s Satanic Verses or something! Cowed, Random House decided not to publish due to the “terrorist” non-threat. Professor Spellberg wrote to the WSJ this weekend, explaining that “I didn’t kill [Sherry Jones‘s] Jewel of Medina":
That’s technically true: Random House’s ignorance killed Jewel of Medina. They’re ultimately the ones to blame for the backwardness here. But Spellberg certainly didn’t help, as publication was ticking along just fine before she chimed in:
...The novel provides no new reading of Aisha’s life, but actually expands upon provocative themes regarding Muhammad’s wives first found in an earlier novel by Salman Rushdie, “The Satanic Verses,” which I teach.”
