ENTERTAINMENT

NEW YORK – Salman Rushdie strongly criticized his publisher for pulling a historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride due to concerns about angering Muslims.

Mr. Rushdie, whose The Satanic Verses led to a death decree in 1989 from Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and forced the author to live under police protection for years, said the Random House Publishing Group had allowed itself to be intimidated.

"I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have canceled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals," Mr. Rushdie said Thursday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed."

Random House has acknowledged pulling Sherry Jones' debut novel, The Jewel of Medina, about Muhammad and his child bride, Aisha.