TO SIR WITHOUT LOVE :

Naipaul, Islam and Gujarat riots (Shazia Nasir, Arab News)

Although violence against minorities in India is an old phenomenon, the Gujarat pogrom is different as it has the evident support of the state and
worse, ordinary Hindus, especially women. It is important to analyze how the intelligentsia is responsible for spreading such venomous hatred. One such
advocate of Hindu militancy is Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul who is known for his love of controversy and intolerance of Islam. The carnage in India and the apparent clash of civilizations call for an examination of Naipaulspeak as he has long been crying hoarse about the "threat from fundamental Islam."

Born in Trinidad of Indian parents, Naipaul visited India in quest of his roots only to find a "wounded civilization" with "a million mutinies." However, he does not cry for humanity's corruption but for what he calls "half-made societies." The poverty of the land, the dust and darkness strike him sharply. He is sentimental about his roots, and as W.B. Yeats wrote "the sentimentalist deceives himself." Naipaul deceives himself by assuming that the chaos that had India in thrall was the fault of "foreign tyrants," i.e. Muslims. He set out on his "Islamic journey" to Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia in an attempt to explore the reasons for the "rage" of the "tyrants who besieged" India. His bitterness about Islam manifests largely as the fear of the unknown.

To the contrary, Mr. Naipaul knows Islam all to well. In Among the Believers he warned us all of the danger presented by Islamic fundamentalism, which lies not so much in Muslim spiritual and moral beliefs, but in its political totalitarianism. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2002 12:38 PM