Wilson book burned in Indonesia

Hundreds of copies of Douglas Wilson’s book, “5 Cities that Ruled the World,” were burned in Indonesia on Wednesday following protests by the Islamic Defenders Front. The book explores how five cities – Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York – shaped the world in different eras. “5 Cities” was pulled from Indonesian books stores on June 9. The offending passage reads:

“[Muhammad] became a marauder and pirate, ordering attacks on Meccan caravans. Two years later, Muhammad ordered assassinations in order to gain control of Medina, and in AD 630 he conquered Mecca.” (p. 26 of the English edition.)

The Islamic Defenders Front (IDF) filed a complaint with the police alleging that the publisher had violated Indonesian law prohibiting the publishing of materials considered libelous toward a particular religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Violators face up to five years in prison plus a fine. Pulling the book was not enough, according to the IDF – it had to be burned because Mohammad “is a symbol in Islamic teachings, and defaming religions is a crime.” The publisher, Gramedia, publicly apologized in an Indonesian newspaper, and the company CEO oversaw the book burning, along with several members of the Indonesian Council.

Douglas Wilson responded to the incident in a blog post:

[P]eople on the other side of the world are in significant trouble because of something I wrote, and I don’t want to in any way make their situation any more difficult than it has to be. But this is how hostage taking works, isn’t it? Unreasonable and belligerent people are always willing to commandeer a situation, and then blame others for the devastation that follows. Whenever this kind of thing happens, whenever Muslims threaten violence because their prophet was “defamed,” they are only proving that it wasn’t a defamation at all. The sons of Muhammad do the works of Muhammad.

Information from the Jakarta Globe report was used in this post.

1. 

   mega says:

   January 28, 2013 at 11:13 pm

   becarefull douglas wilson, Allah SWT never slept, Allah always listening and watching of everything u did and u said..