Free Republic

A US publisher has cancelled the publication of a novel about the youngest wife of the Muslim prophet Mohammed amid a growing controversy over the book. The Jewel of Medina, a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones about Mohammed's child bride A'isha had been due for release in the US last week. But publisher Random House released her from the contract amid the controversy and her agent said Jones was now looking for a publisher in another country to pick up the rights. "Random House made the decision to cancel its US publication of the novel The Jewel of Medina...

A FRENCH court will debate the extent of free speech versus religious sensitivities today as Muslim groups sue a satirical magazine that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organisations accuse Charlie Hebdo of inciting racial hatred by reprinting the Danish caricatures that sparked violence in the Muslim world last year. Politicians, intellectuals, secular Muslims and left-wing pressure groups have lined up behind Charlie Hebdo, arguing that Muslim groups have no right to call for limits on free speech. "I just cannot imagine the consequences not only for France but for Denmark...

ALMOST a year after violent protests against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the editor who commissioned the drawings said they had prompted a vital debate on the integration of Islam in the West. Flemming Rose, culture editor of daily Jyllands-Postenm, said he had published the 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed to defend free expression against what he saw as self-censorship over Islam in Denmark and Europe. The cartoons sparked protests by Muslims around the world in which at least 50 people died. Many Muslims regard any image of the Prophet as blasphemous. “The cartoons didn't create a new reality, they...

AUSTRALIA'S most senior Islamic cleric has called for a Muslim leader to be ostracised over comments about the prophet Mohammed that he likened to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly yesterday accused the chairman of John Howard's Islamic reference board, Ameer Ali, of selling out his religion to gain the support and financial backing of Muslim critics. Dr Ali said in The Australian yesterday that Mohammed had flaws, and criticised Muslims who blindly follow the faith and failed to question the veracity of the Koran. Sheik Hilaly, the head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest, said Dr Ali's...

THE contentious speech by Benedict XVI and the statement by Australia's George Pell signal a decisive change of attitude in the complex debate over the connection between Islam and violence. In his muscular statement this week, the Cardinal did more than defend the Pope. He did more than lament the Muslim violence directed against the Pope and the Catholic Church. The essence of Pell's statement was that such violence demonstrated one of the Pope's main fears: that for many Islamists there is a link between religion and violence. This is an inflammatory subject that many opinion makers want to keep...