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The controversial Jewel of Medina, a historical fiction about the life of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) wife Lady Aisha bint Abi Bakr by American journalist Sherry Jones, hit select bookstores in October 2008, just not in the way the author had planned. The book project was shelved by Random House, the US’s biggest publishing house, after Denise Spellberg, an associate history and Middle Eastern studies professor at the University of Texas in Austin, advised Random House not to publish it, describing the book as “a very ugly, stupid piece of work” and “soft core pornography.” In September 2008, Beaufort Books, another independent publishing house picked the book up and released it in October. Middle East countries including Egypt have boycotted Sherry’s work and banned the book from being sold in their countries.
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