I'm impressed that Naipaul came up with this book after 17 years of his sequel his "Amoung the Believers". Sad to say that his book is banned in Malaysia like any other books that seems to be a challange to Islam. Even worse is that muslims everywhere are quick to say that he's bias or prejudiced towards muslims eventhough the real fact is that he's investigating the impact of the islamic religion in different cultural background. As a Chinese-Malaysian, I totally agree of the facts that he discovered about Malaysia. Islam has been tearing apart Hindu, Buddhist, Christian families by promoting their faith discrimination on the converted people. Furthermore I would like to add that even after 17 years no progress or development had been acheived by those particular muslims in his interviews. Sad to say that those books by the apologists of Islam is making their way in the bookstore while any books that proves to be a challange are kept hidden. Take for example Ibn Warraq's "Why I am Not a Muslim", "Origin of the Quran" and Anwar Hekmat's "Women and the Koran". From Amazon.com
Beyond Belief is Naipul's chronicle of a journey through the world of recently converted Islamic states: Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. It's true that Naipaul wades into the Islamic world with his semi-western preconceptions. But then again, who doesn't come into this world with their own preconceptions. However, Naipaul has such a keen ear for narrative and character that frankly, it doesn't matter. Although Naipul makes many authorial intrusions in the book, he allows his subjects to speak clearly enough that their own values come through. However, Naipaul is never simply judgemental. When judgements are made, they are almost always made in order to weave a personal history into the context of the society. Indeed, Naipaul's position shifts and changes, owing more to the tensions in these Islamic nations rather than post-colonial tendencies. The bias for western liberal democratic states is only a surface bias. What comes across is a rich tapestry of stories that illuminate the social tensions from conflicting organisations of society. In rural pre-industrial villages, there is the warm support network of families versus the rigid, often violent, caste hierarchy and ignorance of other societies. In literate industrial states, there is the massive expansion in life opportunities and individual expression versus the necessity of adopting a transcendent monolithic belief structure (in the shape of islam), which obliterates village life. Finally, there is the inklings of an emerging liberal democratic sentiment that is linked with a nascent prosperous middle class with the associated traumas of existential angst, divorce and living in a world devoid of god-given meaning. Sometimes Naipaul panders to a naive Roussean praise for rural life. Other times, he acknowledges the improvements brought about by literate industrial authoritarian regimes. However, Naipaul serves a lot of ammunition against Islam for its ahistorical rewriting over the rich variety of local communities. This may have something to do with Naipaul's sensibilities as a novelist. Although some of it is warranted, Naipul ignores the comparison these trends have with those that also occured in Europe during the building of the European nation states in the nineteenth and eighteenth century. Christianity too went through a process of conversion, colonisation and rewriting to rival what is happening now in these Islamic states. The industrial revolution wreaked havok across rural colonies across Europe. This process may be more universal than Naipul depicts it. For some who have criticised the book for its lack of focus, this may have something to do with the structure of the book as a travel book. It is not a text-book. If taken as a travel book of ideas and social narrative, it is superb. Having backpacked somewhat myself, travelling can all too often become a shuffle of postcard pictures. Naipaul represents the very best of what such travels can bring - a serious attempt to grapple with the how others truly live and see the world.
From Amazon.com
| 
