American book publisher Random House is being dragged to court by German author Thilo Sarrazin for deciding against releasing his book on Islam.
Random House initially agreed to publish his book but later backed away from the deal.
The dispute between the publishing group and Thilo Sarrazin, a former central banker and Berlin state finance minister, will be heard before a Munich court, reports The Guardian.
According to Bild newspaper, Sarrazin signed a deal with Random House in November 2016 for a work of non-fiction with the working title “Hostile Takeover: How Islam Hampers Progress and Threatens Society.”
After accepting the delivery of Sarrazin’s manuscript in February this year the Munich-based publishing group in May reportedly decided against publishing the book.
According to The Guardian, Sarrazin has in the past courted controversy with his 2010 book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany is Digging its Own Grave), in which he accused immigrants of “dumbing down” German society.
According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for Random House said the publishing group neither planned to “stop” Sarrazin’s new book “nor hinder its publication”, but that the author was free “to publish his book with another publishing house.”
“Hostile Takeover” is scheduled to be published in late August by Munich-based FinanzBuch Verlag, a publisher that usually specializes in non-fiction books dealing with business and trading subjects.
