TRINIDAD, November 1, 2001: When asked about whether he was surprised by Osama bin Laden’s support in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran, V.S. Naipaul, Nobel-prize winning author commented, “No, because these are the converted peoples of Islam, these are the people who are not Arabs. Part of the neurosis of the convert is that he always has to prove himself. He has to be more royalist than the king, as the French say.” When asked if this is what he refers to when he writes about Islam’s imperial drive to extend its reach and root out the unbeliever, he answered, “Yes. It is not the unbeliever as the other person so much as the remnant of the unbeliever in one’s customs and in one’s ways of thinking. It’s this wish to destroy the past, the ancient soul, the unregenerate soul. This is the great neurosis of the converted.” The interview can be read in it’s entirety at source given above.
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