Scotland Yard says it has foiled a terror attack on the publisher of a controversial new book concerning the Prophet Muhammad.
Early on Saturday three men were arrested after a petrol bomb was put through the door of the book’s publisher. But the publisher, Martin Ryjna, was not injured and is now believed to be under police protection.
It is thought that the group were angered by the forthcoming book, The Jewel of Medina which reportedly includes graphic accounts of sexual encounters between the Prophet and his child bride.
The incident occurred 20 years after the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. Last week a leading British Muslim, Inayat Bunglawa, wrote that the days of such protests had passed.
The latest book to raise the ire of Muslims was withdrawn from publication in the USA after the publisher there, Random House, said it had received intelligence of a possible violent reaction from “a small radical segment” of Muslims.
But Muslim scholars had objected to the content, and one, Denise Spellberg of the University of Texas at Austin even called it “a declaration of war” and a “national security issue”.
But a spokesperson for the author, Sherry Jones, said: “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.”
There is now a question over whether The Jewel of Medina will be published as planned next month.
