TEHRAN, Oct 16: A conservative Iranian newspaper on Tuesday cast doubts over the motives for awarding V.S. Naipaul, “one of the most anti-Islamic writers of our era”, this year’s Nobel literature prize.

“The timing of the award to one of the most anti-Islamic writers of our era, only weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, reeks of Islamophobia,” the English-language Kayhan International said in its editorial Tuesday.

“To what does Mr. Naipaul owe the honour of receiving the world’s most prestigious literary award at this juncture? The answer, shocking as it may be, is: to his virulently anti-Islamic writings,” the daily said. “An author like Naipaul has done nothing but spread venom and hatred against Muslims and hence does not deserve to receive any accolade in the year 2001,” it said.

“The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 have triggered Islamophobic waves in the West,” the paper said charging the Nobel committee with wanting to “join the Islamophobic waves created by hate-mongers,” by awarding an “author who has denigrated Muslims.”

“It would have been in the interest of the Nobel Prize committee to award an author or poet who has worked hard to bring love and understanding among all cultures and faiths,” the paper said. Naipaul, who was born in Trinidad as the son of an Indian civil servant, has written extensively about his roots — often critically. His 1981 book “Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey” examined roots of Islamic “fundamentalism”. —AFP