Free Republic

Novelist Sir VS Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, has died aged 85, his family have said. Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, wrote more than 30 books including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas.

In his travel writing, V.S. Naipaul parlays personal encounters, to great effect, into expositions of the underlying cultural forces that impact whole peoples. This has often meant puncturing received multicultural wisdom. Among the Believers, for instance, plumbs the undercurrents of life in Islamic lands, taking the reader well beyond the headlines and into people’s worlds. Though much has changed since 1981 when it appeared, there is still much to absorb from his conversations in four non-Arab nations: Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. (In the 1998 sequel, Beyond Belief, he converses again with some of the same figures).

http://www.amazon.com/Among-Believers-V-S-Naipaul/dp/0844671304 Among the Belivers is a book that was published 10 years ago but is very timely today. It discusses the de-westernization of Eastern countries is familiar in Western countries today.

Nobel Winner Says Saudis Want Islam Dominance Tue Aug 13,10:55 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul has launched a virulent attack on Saudi Arabia, accusing the conservative Gulf kingdom of trying to lead Islam to world domination. Naipaul, 69, was awarded the Nobel literature prize last year amid fierce criticism from Muslim groups riled by his frequent barbs. He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were a sign of Saudi Arabia's desire to convert the world to Islam. Most of the suicide hijackers who rammed planes into New...

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...