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What does local journalist Sherry Jones have in common with the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten? Both have stirred up anger in the Muslim world through the press and both have stood by their work, with varying results.

Sherry Jones’ experience releasing her book has nearly nothing in common with the controversy that blew up over the Danish cartoons. This is total hype that relies on the bugaboo of Muslim anger to create drama and interest.
To Jones credit, she sets the record straight, but that gets buried toward the bottom of the story.

Regarding the controversy surrounding her book, Jones said the heat never rose to a dangerous level. “‘The Jewel of Medina’ cannot legitimately be used as an example of Muslim extremism and its consequences, but rather as an example of the self-censorship we in the United States are willing to undergo – the freedoms we are willing to sacrifice – in the name of fear.”

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To get a better handle on the controversy, it’s necessary to separate the religion from the fear. Controversies over Muhammad’s life and representations of it in popular television and stories are nothing new in Muslim culture. What’s recent is the link between Islam and its history with terrorism and other threats to national security in the mainstream media. This new trend happens to be what Journalist for the Bureau of National Affairs and author Sherry Jones hopes to overcome with the release of her novel. She tells Egypt Today that her interest in Islam came after the September 11th attacks and from coverage of radical violence in the news since then. Through her research and writing, she wants to overcome fears and open up a new dialogue about Islam’s history.

[From The Jewel of Medina: A National Security Threat? – Inside Islam]

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On this topic, Charlie Gere is right to point out that states regulate and define (and so protect) speech, and that even liberal societies have their own cultural blindspots. But Gere is wrong to imply Muslims in these societies need special protection. They don’t — they just need to be treated fairly.

And Tom Heneghan asks, “Now what?”.

Hopefully, nothing.

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