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Muslim Basher Wins Nobel Prize for Literature
STOCKHOLM, Oct 11 (News Agencies) -
V. S. Naipaul, the Trinidadian-born British author, whose writings routinely target Islam and Muslims, won the Nobel Prize for Literature Wednesday.
The Swedish Academy press release said that he has been awarded with the prestigious prize for works that "compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories."
The novelist and short story writer left Trinidad at the age of 18 and was educated at Oxford where he studied English literature. Two controversial books,
Among The Believers: An Islamic Journey and Beyond Belief, are said to blatantly bash Muslims.
In the books Naipul claims that Islam suppresses the histories of indigenous people. He calls Muslims of non-Arab regions "converted people", and has spoken out in support of the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India.
Earlier this month he caused an outcry by comparing the "calamitous effect" of Islam on the world with colonialism. Speaking after a reading of his new book,
Half a Life, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Naipaul said Islam had enslaved and attempted to wipe out other cultures.
"It has had a calamitous effect on converted peoples. To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter'."
The timing of the award and text of the citation is itself controversial. "I don' think we will have violent protests from Islamic countries," said Horace Engdahl of the Swedish Academy, the organization that awards the Nobel prizes.
"If they take care to read his travel books, they will realize that his view of Islam is a lot more nuanced," said Engdahl.
Per Wastberg, another academy member, added, "Naipaul is critical of all religions."
It is a known fact that Naipaul's criticism of Islam doesn't even come closer to that of Chritianity or Hinduism.
Ahmed Versi, editor of the London-based Muslim News said: "He is a Hindu nationalist who has a deep dislike of Muslims." Salman Rushdie once described him as sounding like a poster boy for the Indian right wing Bhartiya Janata Party.
The Nobel Prize has long eluded Naipaul, who had charged that the Swedish Academy prefers politically correct writers, and argued that his pro-Western views and criticism of the Third World rendered him unacceptable of ever receiving a Nobel Prize.
Naipaul will receive $943,000 as part of the prize.
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