Extremely well written but as in any story it chooses fo omit many aspects that would make his story harder to tell. The perspective on many different societies is to identify their “backward” adaptations due to impact of a certain conservative culture. But as I read i could not help myself from being able to tell nearly the same story either: filtering the equivalent toward western society parallel culture, or looking at situations in which this backward culture can allow some societies to survive global forces that could tear them apart.

Naipaul presents a convincing picture that is lacking in imagination with his implicit judgement. ( )

Before Christopher Hitchens, V.S. Naipal wrote the great de-bunker of organized religion. This is it. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Naipaul-Crepuscule-sur-lIslam--Voyage-aux-pays-de...
> BAnQ (Rossignol G., Le devoir, 13 mars 1982, pp. 23 et 36) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2769314
> BAnQ (Major A., Le devoir, 10 août 2002, pp. 1 et 2) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2809065
> Bibliographie : https://www.librarything.fr/work/6103198/book/203997403

I read Among the Believers when it appeared ('82), assigned bits on daily papers to my Freshmen worried about the American embassy takeover (mentioned p.395). I reassured them that the Iranians had, 150 years earlier, over-run another Empire's embassy: the Russians'. Then they killed the ambasador, a great writer, Griboyedev. Among the B-livers has many amusing passages, such as VSN pushing his stalled little Taxi half a block, then quitting and thinking, "This is NOT the way to the Holy City of Qom."

The book soon moves on to Pakistan, which occupies half of it, then the last hundred pages on Indonesia. Naipaul interviews journalists throughout, including Nusrat in Karachi, as Pakistan is building a new culture. Nusrat considers himself a bad Muslim for several reasons, like the 248 rupees he gains in interest, (forbidden to Muslim banks--how build a bank system without? 397). He goes to cover the slums in Clifton, not far from the Bhutto house, but gets irritated that, in 32 years, the poor people had not marched to the Bhutto house. I have a personal connection with Bhutto's daughter Benazir, whose pilot Aly Khan we dined with in London, over a few years, once at his flat there. He was in a different car from P.M. Benazir when she was shot by the government, the only ones who could shut off the electricity.

Nusrat's newspaper caused riots by printing an article about the Prophet's great-grand-daughter, whom the Shias reject. Some planned to amass a crowd and burn down the newspaper, but because of the savvy, though ill, editor, the paper survived. Nusrat reads Art Buchwald, wants to publish his columns in a book like the American's. VSN advises him, though very good as columns, they would not make a book. For instance, he writes without irony about a public flogging, how the buses break down, fail to bring witnesses. Though jaunty, Nusrat's columns are humorless, "It was part of his candour, his attractiveness"(399).

Naipaul interviews a medical doctor in Rawalpindi, twenty miles from the newer, British-built capital city Islamabad. VSN asks the doctor how his faith helped him in his profession, as he claimed.
An expert on bites-- donkeys', snakes', scorpions', mostly affecting the shoeless poor-- he'd been the Asst Medical Director for years, but when the director retired, the post remained open for six months. (He could cure viper bites, but not cobra and krait.) So he went to the General Manager, who thought he just wanted the big house and salary. The G.M. said if the bite expert didn't like his job, he should resign. Passing over the form, the doctor wrote out his resignation and signed it--buoyed by his faith. The G.M saw that, and rejected the letter.

By the way, I highly respect this doctor's idea of holy war, jihad, the fifth article of faith; for him, it was "the constant struggle in yourself to fight evil"(171). To myself, raised Protestant, Congregationalist (though fallen), the doctor's holy war is part of my faith, too.
The doctor's son Syed, who says he is not religious, was educated to become a doctor, but he also wrote poetry, and describes his process, "I am empty for three, four months--empty in terms of poetry. I am occupied, then it just comes, two or three poems. I don't want to do anything else, even if I'm supposed to be studying"(176). ( )

Naipaul focuses on the social and cultural aspects of Islam and provides a lot of food for thought but never really convinces when exploring Islam as a faith. 3 Aug 2015 ( )