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Book on Prophet's sex life draws anger, threats

An Egyptian female author has spoken out in defense of her controversial new book, Love and Sex in the Prophet's Life, which caused outrage after it was circulated at the Cairo International Book Fair last month [WS: January 2008].

"I wanted to explain sex from the real Islamic perspective and to make it the reference for having a healthy sexual life," writer Passant Rashad said in a statement to AlArabiya.net.

"When I mentioned the prophet I meant to demonstrate how his relationship with his wives was the perfect example of a healthy sexual life that is devoid of the complications Arabs try to impose on it these days."

But the book has drawn sharp criticism. Independent Egyptian MP Mustafa al-Gindi complained to the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, earlier this month [WS: February 2008] saying the book insults the Prophet and his wives, especially his third wife Aisha.

"The book contains parts about positions and orgasms, which is totally inappropriate for a book that had the prophet's name in its title," said Gindi.

A religious TV channel in Egypt denounced the publication and hosted a series of sheikhs – Islamic leaders – who accused her of apostasy and called for her killing, even if she were to repent.

Meanwhile, Islamic thinker Gamal al-Banna called for an end to the fatwas on writers.

"This is a backward way to understand Islam. We have to eliminate this torrent of fatwas through reasoning and refutation of these lies. It is only then that those bloodshed Sheiks will find no audience."

He called upon Arab information ministers to ban televised fatwas that wreak havoc in society and make intellectuals live in constant fear.

"I kept silent, hoping this campaign will end or those sheiks will contact me to discuss the book, but none of that happened. Now I fear for my life," Rashad told AlArabiya.net.

In the aftermath of the fatwa, Rashad said that a bearded man came to her house on Thursday and threatened her.

"He banged on the door at two in the morning and asked my husband if I was the author whose bloodshed is sanctioned. He told him that many problems are coming my way, then left."

Rashad said she is not an apostate and would never insult the prophet. On the contrary, she said she aimed to refute the myths propagated by the enemies of Islam, who portray the prophet as obsessed with women. -- Source: DUBAI (Farrag Ismail, AlArabiya.net)

US paper distributes free anti-Prophet book

A right-wing American weekly newspaper will distribute free copies of a book that insults Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and associates Islam with terrorism, Washington-based news agency America in Arabic reported.

The neo-conservative, Republican-oriented Human Events newspaper will distribute Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2006), America in Arabic said.

The book -- regularly priced at 30 dollars -- is released by Regnery, which has published a string of controversial neo-con books and is a division of Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events.

Well-known British writer Karen Armstrong, author of Muhammad: A Prophet of Our Time, has said that the book is "written in hatred," contains "basic and bad mistakes of fact" and that the author "deliberately manipulates the evidence".

The newspaper says Spencer unravels facts not known to historians. The book claims that Muhammad said terrorism made him victorious and that he used to tempt people with paradise so they would crush his enemies.

The author also accuses Muhammad of treason, breaching the Treaty of Hudaybiya with the Meccan tribe of Quraish, and instigating Muslims to kill Jews.

Spencer, the director of the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch websites, also claims that the prophet encouraged Muslim men to take women captive to control them.

Ultra conservative attorney Ann Coulter, who writes a column in the newspaper, is taking part in the campaign to promote the book.

Coulter is famous for her controversial statement about Arabs and Muslims, especially after 9/11 when she said Americans should invade Arab countries.

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war," she wrote in the conservative website National Review Online.

Coulter also angered Jews in the United States when she said they should convert to Christianity to reach perfection. (AlArabiya.net)

Clash of civilizations or calculation of interest?

Only 39 years old, the Indonesian scholar Anies Baswedan's thoughts have been considered so influential that Foreign Policy magazine has rated this Rector of Paramadina University 60th on a list of the world's top 100 intellectuals.

Critical of the dominance of a cultural approach to Muslim-Western conflicts, he believes conflict is not triggered by cultural, religious, or civilisational identity, but by a calculation of interests. He (pic) expands on this concept in an interview with Jakarta-based journalist, Wahyuana.

Q: What exactly do you mean by "a calculation of interests" in Muslim-Western conflicts?

Baswedan: The choice to engage in violence or peace isn't the projection of any ideological, cultural or religious factors, but instead, a strategic calculation, or a calculation of interests. A group opts to use violent approaches or peaceful methods depending on each approach's incentives or disincentives. Who is considered the enemy and what confrontational method will be used is often determined more by a calculation of interests than of ideology, religion or culture.

For example, let's consider relations between what we commonly refer to as the Afghan mujahideen and the United States. These various Afghan opposition groups were allies of the United States while fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. At that time the United States considered them freedom fighters or heroes. Now, however, some of these same groups are fighting against the United States, the new occupying force, and are therefore indiscriminately called terrorists. It is the perspective of each party, how it sees its challenges, interests and positions, that influences whether it become allies or enemies with the other.

Q: Does this mean the clash of civilizations is nonsense?

Baswedan: I think it's a forced terminology. What really happens is a polarization, and it has occurred in many forms throughout the history of mankind. There are polarizations in culture, ideology, race and religion. Polarisation has become an innate part of life itself. Samuel P. Huntington's clash of civilizations is too forced – as if there is a specific religious/cultural conflict between the Muslim world and the West. There isn't. Throughout history, conflicts pitted as clashes between civilizations weren't solely about religion. For example, the Crusaders also had interests in land and politics.

Q: What about ideological or religious motives behind Muslim-Western conflicts? Do you deny such motives?

Baswedan: I don't deny them. Ideological or religious motives, of course, exist. However, they only occur at the micro, or individual level. Religion or ideology is just a tool that is hijacked to recruit and motivate people and to create solidarity with the perpetrators to whom it gives an air of legitimacy. These conflicts are presented as ideological or religious campaigns in order to inspire followers, legitimate the war as a "just war", and attract allies, etc.

That is why we need to use rational strategic analysis to enable us to acknowledge potentially violent conflict that is about to arise, so we can find a way to prevent it. But if we only employ a cultural framework (an approach that sees the psycho-religious-cultural variables influentially shaping the actions of a person or a group), we would walk in circles, without ever learning how to solve the conflict.

Q: Don't you think that hijacking ideology, culture, or religion for such strategic interests shows that they could be lethal weapons?

Baswedan: Exactly. Ideology, culture and religion are all excellent weapons for creating solidarity because of their transcendental and messianic values. But as weapons, they are used for external interests, not for themselves. When the external interests are achieved, they might be used for other strategic interests, which, in the case of geopolitical change, could turn allies into enemies.

Q: What do you think about the future of Muslim-Western relations?

Baswedan: Today the situation is fascinating. Islam grows and exists in prominent civilizational centers, such as in the capital cities of America and Europe. As a minority, Muslims there have to express their religious nature and negotiate Muslim values through the language and structures of the host country, becoming part of its civilizational treasure. The same thing is also experienced by Westerners that live in the Muslim world. It is in the hands of these ambassadors that the future of Muslim-Western relations lies, for they are in the privileged position of being fully a part of both Muslim and western societies.

* Wahyuana is a Jakarta-based journalist and founder of the Maluku Media Centre (MMC). This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). (Source: Asia Sentinel.com)

Book on Prophet Muhammad's wife dropped (Agencies, New York)

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about Aisha, the wife of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), saying it could "incite acts of violence."

"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on Aug. 12, as part of a $100,000, two-book deal. An eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The novel traces the life of Aisha from her engagement to Prophet Mohammed, when she was six, until his death. Jones, who has never visited the Middle East, spent several years studying Arab history and said the novel was a synthesis of all she had learned.

"They did have a great love story," Jones said of Mohammed and Aisha, who is often referred to as Mohammed's favorite wife. "He died with his head on her breast."

Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely.

"I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed ... I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder," said Jones.

Fears of violence

A statement from Random House, a division of German media giant Bertelsmann, said the company received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

"In this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel," deputy publisher Thomas Perry wrote.

Jones, who has just completed a sequel to the novel examining Aisha's later life, is free to sell her book to other publishers, Perry said.

The decision has sparked controversy on Internet blogs and in academic circles. Some compared the controversy to previous cases where portrayals of Islam were met with violence.

Protests and riots erupted in many Muslim countries in 2006 when cartoons, one showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban resembling a bomb, appeared in a Danish newspaper. At least 50 people were killed and Danish embassies attacked.

British author Salman Rushdie's 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" was met with riots across the Muslim world. Rushdie was forced into hiding for several years after Iran's then supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, proclaimed a death edict, or fatwa, against him.