Berlin, July 7 (IANS) Publishing giant Random House has reportedly declined to release a new book by controversial German author Thilo Sarrazin over fears that it could whip up anti-Muslim hatred.
The dispute revolving around Sarrazin's new book "Hostile Takeover: How Islam Hampers Progress and Threatens Society" will be heard before a court in Munich on Monday, reports Daily Mail.
The new book was expected to hit bookstores in late August and is billed as a critical close reading of the Koran.
The 73-year-old said that he had signed a contract with Random House in November 2016 on the basis of a 10-page expose and delivered the manuscript in February this year.
"After a lot of back and forth about the publishing date, the publisher said at the end of May that it would not put the book out at all," he was quoted by Daily Mail.
Random House, owned by German media behemoth Bertelsmann, confirmed the dispute would be heard in court Monday but declined to comment on the specifics.
In a statement, Random House called Sarrazin's new book "unannounced" and maintained that it had "neither the intention of stopping it nor blocking its publication".
"The author is free to publish his book at any time with another house," it said.
Sarrazin's 2010 book "Germany Does Away With Itself" became a bestseller after arguing that under-educated Islamic migrants made the nation "more stupid".
