"Suicide Bomber novel censored by Muslims"

[Nirvana]

Thought this article might be of interest:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2546788/Suicide-bomber-novel-censored-from-Muslim-writing-competition-claims-author-Max-Malik.html


An author who won last year's Muslim Writer of the Year Award has claimed his new book was "censored" from this year's competition because it tackled subjects "unpalatable" to Britain's Islamic community like suicide bombings and paedophilia.

Novelist Dr Max Malik said even though his book was one of just five novels short-listed for this year's award, The Butterfly Hunter was never given to the judges to read.

The Muslim Writers Awards, which aim to unearth undiscovered talent, has received the backing of Gordon Brown.

But Dr Malik said he thought his book had been cast aside to appease parts of the Muslim community.

The organisers of the awards have admitted the judges never got the chance to read the book, even though it was short-listed, but could not explain why.

Dr Malik, a former GP from Birmingham, said he was "angry" at the apparent censorship.

He said: "My creative effort is being treated as if it is somehow unclean and unworthy. Clearly, the Muslim Writers Awards has decided that the novel is so unpalatable for them that it needs to be buried.

"I'm deeply dismayed that a project like this, which is supposed to unearth new talent and celebrate artistic expression, has been hijacked by the puritan mindset. Yes it's true that not all the Muslim characters in my book are model citizens. However, this is just a reflection of the realities we face today."

For further details you can check out the writer's website at www.thebutterflyhunter.net

It gives you an idea about the story (plus some other stories he's written). Doesn't really seem *that* controversial.

[Nirvana]

The plot thickens...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/13/muslim.awards.malik



Muslim Writers awards deny censorship of 'unpalatable' novel.

The Muslim Writers awards has described claims that it censored an unpublished novel because of its controversial content as "rubbish". A spokesman said the novel, which features a child-abusing mosque teacher and the rape of a Muslim girl, had dropped out of the judging process in error.

Dr Max Malik, who won the top prize at the awards last year, claims that his novel The Butterfly Hunter was not submitted to the prize's panel of independent judges for final adjudication because of its "unpalatable" subject matter. The Butterfly Hunter, which had been shortlisted by first-round volunteer judges, tells the story of a white female journalist who joins a suicide bombing cell. The story also touches on drug abuse, paedophilia and a gay imam using rent boys and prostitutes.

But awards coordinator Irfan Akram described allegations of censorship as "rubbish". He said that Malik's book was the subject of a double page spread in the awards' magazine, sent out to 10,000 people, and that Malik was also given stage time on the night of the awards. "We are trying to nurture new talent," he said. "We don't worry about the subject matter, we worry about the writing."

In the book, Malik describes the actions of the abusive mosque teacher. "That day Hamza had been wearing the traditional Pakistani dress. The red splashes staining the back of his white salwar were like a disease, an accusatory and threatening contagion. The spreading pollution defiling the purity of the white traditional baggy clothes his friend had worn. Jimmy washed silently the pain growing inside him as Hamza washed his face with cold water and put his small white hat with the gold embroidery back on his head. The two boys did not speak. But Jimmy had looked into Hamza's wet eyes and words became superfluous." Later, he writes: "Jessica pushed her golden-yellow hair away from her face and fixed him with her blue eyes, she blurted the rest of the words that had been eating her brain like an invasive fungus, the thoughts that had been chewing her body like an alien growing within. 'And I'm a suicide bomber!'"