Among The Believers: An Islamic Journey is an account of the author's travel through Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Iran. It records his impressions of the rising religious fundamentalism in these regions.
Summary Of The Book
Among The Believers: An Islamic Journey was published in 1981. It records the author's six month journey through four Muslim countries. It was a time when Islamic fundamentalism was beginning to gain strength. The author attempts to analyze the reasons and effects of this trend.
It was a time when the younger generation in these countries were increasingly feeling the influence of the West. They wanted the material comforts and luxuries enjoyed by the liberal societies of the Western democracies, yet, this conflicted with what they had been led to believe by leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini, that their faith was pure and their rejection of the Western ideas would soon be vindicated.
The power of the West, the influence of countries like America was actually increasing. Now, the younger people were caught in a conflict between what they coveted and their entrenched beliefs. Many of these young men and women then chose religious fundamentalism as the way to fight the lure of the West and retain the purity of their culture.
The author feels that a society that yearns for all the social, scientific, technological and healthcare advances of the West and yet seeks to isolate itself from it and bury itself in a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith is a confused ideal. He sees this trend leading to the rise of religious extremism in these regions, while arresting its creativity and progress.
Among The Believers: An Islamic Journey was the author's analysis of the reactionary Islamic institutions that were raising their heads in these regions. It is his attempt to present to the world his views on the confusing values and ideals that led young people in these countries to turn to a regressive version of their faith as the only way to preserve their culture.
About V. S. Naipaul
V. S. Naipaul is a British writer.
Some of his other books are The Mystic Masseur, A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River, A Way in the World, The Loss of El Dorado, India: A Wounded Civilization, and The Overcrowded Barracoon and Other Articles.
V. S. Naipaul was born in 1932 in Trinidad where his grandfather had emigrated from India to work in the sugar plantations. His father was a journalist and correspondent for the Trinidad Guardian. Naipaul obtained a scholarship to study abroad and chose to study in Oxford University. This is where he met his future wife, Patricia Ann Hale. In 1955 he was offered an opportunity to host a BBC show focused on the Caribbean's called Caribbean Voices. His first published work was a collection of stories called Miguel Street. Naipaul became a prolific writer and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.
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