Author: John Bingham
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 28, 2008
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3097350/Radical-Islamic-clerics-warn-of-further-attacks-after-publisher-is-firebombed.html
Islamic extremists have warned of a wave of
reprisals over a controversial book about the Prophet Mohammed after the home
of its publisher was firebombed.
Hardline clerics said that further attacks
would be "inevitable" if publication of the novel, The Jewel of
Medina, goes ahead as planned next month.
Police moved in to arrest three men moments
after a fire broke out at the London home and office of Martin Rynja in the
early hours of Saturday.
The attack came days after Mr Rynja's company,
Gibson Square, bought the rights to the book by the American writer Sherry
Jones, which has already been likened to Sir Salman Rushdie's The Satanic
Verses.
The novel, which focuses on the relationship
between Mohammed and his child bride Aisha, was recently dropped from publication
in the United States by the publishers Random House amid fears that it would
anger Muslims.
Mr Rynja, who is described by friends as "taking
on projects where others fear to tread" has published several books by
controversial authors including Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy
who was poisoned in London after becoming an outspoken critic of the country's
prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin.
Buying the British and Commonwealth rights
to the Sherry Jones novel last week, Mr Rynja described it as a "moving
love story".
But the radical cleric Anjem Choudhary said
the book was an insult to the Prophet Mohammed's honour, something he said
would warrant a "death penalty" under Sharia law.
The attack on Mr Rynja's home in Lonsdale
Square, Islington, north London, came in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Armed police accompanied by firemen broke
down the door of the house after flames and smoke were seen.
It is believed officers had been expecting
the attack and quickly moved in to arrest two men at the scene while a third
was stopped at a nearby London Underground station.
The three men, aged 40, 30 and 22, were being
questioned on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts
of terrorism last night.
The EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella whose
16-year-old brother Ben was stabbed to death earlier this year, lives in the
square and was among those evacuated by police as part of the operation.
Other neighbours spoke of their terror at
being awoken to see armed police in the square but praised the operation as
professional.
But the radical cleric Anjem Choudhary, who
lives in Ilford, east London, said he was "not surprised at all"
by the attack and warned of possible further reprisals over the book
"It is clearly stipulated in Muslim law
that any kind of attack on his honour carries the death penalty," he
said.
"People should be aware of the consequences
they might face when producing material like this. They should know the depth
of feeling it might provoke."
He denied any involvement in the attack but
said he "understood" the feelings of the perpetrators.
"If the publication goes ahead then I
think, inevitably, there will be more attacks like this - this is the thin
of the wedge," he said.
Speaking from Lebanon, the radical cleric
Omar Bakri, added: "If anybody attacks that man I cannot myself condemn
it."
Sir Salman, who was made the subject of a
fatwa by the Iranian leader Ayatolla Khomeini ordering his death in 1989 for
publishing a "blasphemous" book, has spoken out in defence of The
Jewel of Medina and suggested Random House had allowed itself to be intimidated.
Police were granted a warrant to continue
holding the three men until Saturday at a brief hearing at City of Westminster
Magistrates' Court on Sunday.
