Authors ‘Must Be Jailed’ : China Muslims Protest ‘Sex Habits’ Book

About 2,500 Chinese Muslims chanting “Punish China’s Rushdie” marched through Beijing today demanding that two editors be imprisoned for publishing a book on the sexual habits of Muslims.

“These men must be jailed,” said Li Jing, a Uighur Turk from the Central Academy of Nationalities and a leader of the protest. “If they disappeared from the face of the Earth, we would be happy.”

The protest came a day after Iran President Ali Khamenei said at a news conference in Beijing that Iran still demands the execution of British author Salman Rushie, who is accused of blaspheming Islam in his book, “Satanic Verses.”

The Chinese book in question is “Sex Habits,” a compilation of essays on the sexual tastes of people around the world.

The section on Islam says the purpose of a Muslim’s pilgrimage to Mecca is to engage in bestiality. It said the domes and towers of Muslim mosques symbolize human sex organs.

In an unusually early report by Chinese standards, Beijing’s afternoon newspaper, the Beijing Evening News, reported the demonstration. It also said the book had been banned in Beijing “because it has hurt the unity of China’s minorities.”

The demonstration, which included students from eight school and 13 minority groups, twisted through the streets of Beijing’s Muslim quarter to the Niujie Mosque, Bejing’s oldest.

The book’s editors are apparently teachers from Shanxi province who published the book under pen names.

The book has been selling rapidly since it was published in Shanghai in March. Chinese sources said the Shanghai city government stopped a second printing of the book in early May.

“The black market price has already hit 50 yuan ($13.50),” said one Chinese journalist familiar with the book.