Can a publisher somewhere please grow a pair and not keep letting fundamentalist assholes who want to see the world revert to the good old days of the 13th Century run their houses? The Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jones' historical novel about the little girl wife of Muhammad that Random House dropped because it was afraid of offending crazy people, is now on shaky ground with its British publisher. When that publisher, Gibson Square, was firebombed a couple weeks ago, they said they were going forward with publication anyway. Now, not so much.

The Bookseller magazine said on its Web site that Gibson Square publishing has decided to postpone the publication of "The Jewel of Medina." The novel's American author, Sherry Jones of Spokane, Washington, also has decided to cancel a publicity tour to Germany to promote the book, the magazine said. "We respect Sherry Jones's decision," the publisher said in a statement quoted by the magazine. "In her view the best thing to do is to postpone her visit and the publishing of the novel in Britain."

But surely they've set a new pub date, right? Right? Nope. [AP]