Random House has decided to pull The Jewel of Medina, a debut novel based on the life of Hazrat Aisha, the child bride of the Prophet Muhammad, that was scheduled for publication next Tuesday.

Random House feared the book would become another Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel, inspired by the life of Muhammad, led to death threats against the author that sent him into hiding for a decade, riots and the murder of its Japanese translator.

In a press release, deputy publisher Thomas Perry said the company was advised that the publication might be offensive to Muslims, and that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

"We decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel," he said.

Sherry Jones, the book's author, is free to sell the book to other publishers, he added.

Jones, a U.S. journalist from Washington State, has never visited the Middle East. She has, however, learned Arabic, studied Arab history and scholarly works on the life of Aisha, and came to admire her subject as a woman of courage.

"I'm devastated," Jones told the Wall Street Journal after being told that her book would not be published. "I wanted to honour Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored — silenced — by historians."

She has just completed a sequel to the novel that examines her heroine's later life.

In a column for the Wall Street Journal, Asra Nomani said she was disappointed in the publisher's decision: "This saga upsets me as a Muslim — and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way."

Nomani is the author of the 2006 book Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam.