Remember how we tore into Random House relentlessly, calling them pussies for being too scared to publish Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jones's historical novel about Aisha, the child bride of Muhammad? Perhaps it's just self-fulfilling prophecy, but it looks like they may have been kinda-sorta right about that whole "it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical [Islamic] segment" thing: last weekend, four men were arrested after throwing a firebomb into the house of the book's British publisher, Martin Rynja. So who is this guy, anyway? Rynja has a colorful publishing history with controversial books:

"Four years ago, he published Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud after Random House, once again, pulled out - this time for fear of libel action. He is also the publisher of OJ Simpson's If I Did It and Alexander Litvinenko's Blowing Up Russia." [Guardian]

Now he's in hiding—which is probably going to totally derail the Sarah Palin biography his house, Gibson Square, was planning on publishing next week. (And we need a Palin bio to defend our freedom right now.) Maybe not, though: firebombs or not, the NYT reports that Jewel of Medina will be published any-fucking-way. Well-played, sir. [Photo: BBC]