"Acts of Violence" threatened against author/former Missoulian

There's an article in the Missoulian today about Sherry Jones, a former citizen of The Garden City, who is back in Missoula for the time being because it's "where I feel safe and comfortable."

It seems she was in the process of having her first book published by Random House about A'isha, the youngest of Muhammad's 12 wives. The publisher canceled the contract, however, at the last hour because they received warnings that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” Random House justified the decision by stating that the book "might be offensive to some in the Muslim community.”

So what? Who doesn't get offended now and then by someone else's words? I know that I do. There's no point in declaring "freedom of speech" if nobody ever says anything that someone else disagrees with. Nobody, not you or I or anyone else, has the right to never be offended, or to threaten violence against others simply for saying something we don't like.

Check out the Missoulian article, and then when Jones' book, "Jewel of Medina," is eventually published (by someone with more courage than Random House to defend freedom of speech), buy several copies as gifts for all your friends, even if it sucks. Always work to ensure that threats of violence to suppress freedom of speech consistently backfire and draw exponentially more attention to the very speech that was supposed to be suppressed.

Update (09/03/08): The book apparently has a new publisher, yet to be named. The English version now due to be released in October.