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The Muslim Writers awards has described claims that it censored an unpublished novel because of its controversial content as "rubbish".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!'"
Malik, a former GP, said he was "deeply dismayed" that the awards had been "hijacked by the puritan mindset". He added: "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. It's unseemly that my novel is being treated as if it's the second coming of The Satanic Verses. I have created a work of fiction, which is neither blasphemous nor disrespectful towards any particular group or individual."
The awards, which are supported by Gordon Brown and for which 10,000 submissions were received, were presented in March. The novel prize was taken by Fatima Martin, 49, from Woking. Malik said: "I'm angry at the treatment I've received because my creative effort is being treated as if it's 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."
However, Irfan Akram said that he had personally tried to introduce Malik to publishers and agents on the basis that he felt his writing showed promise. "We are unequivocally, absolutely, not interested in restricting creative talent," added Akram. "The only thing I will say is that putting someone in front of television cameras and putting them in a magazine would not be the right way to censor them."
Awards project director Imran Akram said that Malik's submission was "certainly one of the best" received in 2008, and was shortlisted for the novel award along with four other unpublished novelists. But he admitted that Malik's work was not submitted to judges as it should have been, and said that the situation was currently being investigated: "The responsibility for ensuring work was submitted to judges was delegated to several individuals within the organisation. We are still in the process of investigating the matter, and will be responding to Dr Malik's concerns once we have ascertained why his novel was not forwarded to the panel of judges." A spokesperson for Malik said he had not as yet submitted his work to any publishers.
Malik's is the second novel this week to provoke comparisons to Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, following Random House US's decision to drop Sherry Jones's debut novel The Jewel of Medina. Academics and security experts approached by the publisher suggested the novel, which retells the story of Muhammad's child bride Aisha, could provoke worse reprisals than Rushdie's novel or the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.