Cops have charged three Muslim men who petrol bombed the home and office of publishers about to print a book about the Prophet Muhammad.

Ali Beheshti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22 and Abbas Taj, 30, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' today accused of conspiring without lawful excuse to damage the premises... intending to destroy or damage property and with intent to endanger life and conspiring without lawful excuse to damage the premises... intending to destroy or damage property and being reckless as to whether the life of another would thereby be endangered.

Mr Beheshti was also charged with possessing a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas.

Anti terror police on alert

The Saturday morning attack of the publisher Gibson Square in Islington has resulted anti-terror police stepping up its efforts to prevent any further incidents.

Gibson was to release The Jewel of Medina this month - they have since cancelled the publication, a victory for the small minded perpetrators who attacked freedom of speech.

The book by American author Sherry Jones followed the story of Muhammad and his child bride was cancelled in the US in August by publisher Random House who feared this sort of reaction.

British Muslim reaction

The Ramadan Foundation has condemned the "violence and terrorism" on Saturday and called on peaceful protest of the book but were "disgusted at this novel."

Mr. Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of the Foundation commented that:

“...attacking the central figures of Islam under the guise of freedom of speech is patronising and the world sees their attempt to belittle our faith."

“I also strongly condemn the thugs that used terrorism against the publishing house; they do not represent Islam or Muslims and violence in any form cannot be justified and we urge the Publishers to withdraw publication.”

Satanic Verses

The attack was a hark back to the violent protests that greeted Salmand Rushdie’s 1988 book, the Satanic Verses.

Then Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers, or to point him out to those who can kill him if they cannot themselves.

Following the fatwa, Rushdie was put under police protection by the British government. Despite a conciliatory statement by Iran in 1998, and Rushdie's declaration that he would stop living in hiding, the Iranian state news agency reported in 2006 that the fatwa will remain in place permanently since fatwa’s can only be rescinded by the person who first issued them and Ayatollah Khomeini is no longer alive.

As of early 2008 he has not been physically harmed, but others connected with the book have suffered violent attacks. Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese language translator of the book, was stabbed to death on July 11, 1991; Ettore Capriolo, the Italian language translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month; William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, barely survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October 1993, and Aziz Nesin, the Turkish language translator, was the intended target in the events that led to the Sivas massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 37 people.