"Beyond Belief: An Islamic Journey": VS Naipaul 1932-2018

Submitted by dhimmi no more, Aug 12, 2018 at 09:28

Dr Pipes

VS Naipaul just died in England at the age of 85. Here is his obituary from the BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45159149

He wrote "Beyond Belief: An Islamic Journey" in 1982 following his trips to Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. He was interested in exploring Islam among the non Arabic speaking "converts" to Islam

He wrote this book at a time when the dangers of Islam, Islamists and Muslim immigration to the West were not even on the radar any where in the West. He was interested in really examining Islam among those that were forced to convert to Islam as in the case of Iran and Pakistan as well as those that converted to Islam through the medium of Indian Muslim proselytizers in Malaysia and Indonesia and the picture that emerges is not very pretty..

John Wansbrough proves that the Qur'an is an ethnocentric document. And it is the religion of the Arabs or Arabic speakers (as in the case of let us say Egypt) only.

Dr Pipes you wrote:

> The book's subtitle, explained in the text by the fact that "Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert,"

You are very correct after all even Meccans "converted" to Islam. It should have been: Everyone in these four countries is a convert. But it still does not change the fact that Islam is an alien Arab religion and still non Arabic speakers converted to Islam. And to quote the Qur'an وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا (Surat al-Nasr: 2) Or I saw the peoples enter (convert) to the religion of Allah (Islam) in large numbers.

You also wrote:

>Almost as wrong-headed is the notion that every Muslim becomes, "whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story."

I cannot speak for Naipaul but to, let us say, Pakistanis to be Muslim includes revering the Arabs and their culture, adopting Arabic names, trying to find links with Arabs in far away Arabia, denying the atrocities committed by Muslims against their own ancestors and to distance themselves from their culture and their Hindu ancestors, vile hate of Hinduism and India, and worst of all mangling the Arabic language

You also wrote:

>He thinks Friday is the "Muslim sabbath" (it is a day of prayer but not one of rest).

You are very correct. However, Friday is now becoming a "day of rest" in Islamic countries Case in point is Cairo where there is hardly any traffic all day Friday, which is hard to believe

I still recommend reading his book for anyone who studies Islam in Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia. This book aged very well

Here is a link to the book

https://www.amazon.com/Among-Believers-V-S-Naipaul-ebook/product-reviews/B004G5ZY2Y/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_hist_5?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=five_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar

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