jon will like this

[James Holland]

I wanted to pass along these links...one is for the "Arts and Letters
Daily," part of my morning cyberpatrol, and the other is linked from it,
V.S. Naipul's interview in tomorrow's NYT about Islam.  This particular
exchange really struck me:
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Are you surprised by Osama bin Laden's support in Pakistan, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Iran -- countries you wrote about in your travel books on
Islam?

No, because these are the converted peoples of Islam. To put it brutally,
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.

Is this what you mean when you write about Islam's imperial drive to extend
its reach and root out the unbeliever?

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.



http://www.aldaily.com/


http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/magazine/28QUESTIONS.html?pagewanted=print

Jim H.