Rushdie slams publishers for cancelling novel on Muhammad

In an e-mail to The Associated Press on Friday he said: “I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have cancelled another author’s novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals. This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed.”

Random House has acknowledged pulling Sherry Jones’ debut novel, The Jewel of Medina, about the Prophet and his child bride, Aisha. The publisher, which had planned to release the book this month, said in a recent statement that “credible and unrelated sources” had warned that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”