Excerpt:
It was probably just an eerie coincidence. On Friday night the Islington home, and office, of a publisher were firebombed. It was 20 years to the day since the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Whether the alleged perpetrators of the attack knew the significance of the date I do not know. What seems certain is that Martin Rynja, the director of Gibson Square, was targeted because he is about to publish The Jewel of Medina, a romantic tale about Aisha, the Prophet Muhammad's youngest wife. Written by an American journalist, Sherry Jones, the novel was originally bought by the American publisher Random House for a $100,000 advance. But earlier this year it pulled out of the deal for fear of sparking another Rushdie affair.
As works of fiction, the two books have little in common. The Jewel of Medina is a breezy historical romance, The Satanic Verses a complex, chaotic exploration of "migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death", as Salman Rushdie put it. What links them is Islam and free speech - and 20 years of weakening liberal resolve to defend freedom of expression.