"It [Islam] has had a calamitous effect on converted peoples. To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter'... This abolition of the self demanded by Muslims was worse than the similar colonial abolition of identity. It is much, much worse in fact... You cannot just say you came out of nothing."
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Original Language: English
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V.S. Naipaul. As quoted in VS Naipaul launches attack on Islam" in The Guardian (4 October 2001)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Religious_conversion
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Religious conversion
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