Q&A with Dr. Max Malik

1. Did the Muslim Writers Project cite a reason for not accepting the book? Is there any particular part of the novel that is questionable in their eyes?

The Muslim Writers Association (MWA) did accept the book and it did get shortlisted; in fact, I was told that it was one of the best submissions the MWA had ever received, and would probably have won in view of the fact that I had won the overall Creative Writer of the Year prize in 2007. The problem is that the book was not sent to the judges. There was obviously a difference of opinion somewhere in MWA and someone censored it. I think the objections are due in part to characters in The Butterfly Hunter being portrayed as suicide bombers from within the Muslim community, and the fact that indigenous British people such as Jessica, a blonde haired blue eyed woman who gets involved in a terror cell could be involved in the potential destruction of their own cities in the impending 'Clash of Civilisations' in the book. Also, the morally and sexually corrupt Imam who uses rent boys and sexual abuse of boys in a mosque could have been seen as offensive. However good or bad a character may be has no barring on religion; it is a fact that reflects true life.

2. A number of books have been censored or banned because certain organizations find them to be offensive to Muslims. How do you see the future of books that pushes the envelope in the Muslim community?

I think mostly it’s a lack of understanding on part of the Muslim community as well as a reciprocal lack of understanding of the sensitivities of the Muslim communities by some writers. I think the Muslim community needs to accept the fact that there simply is good and bad in all communities; and that in fact there have been and indeed are potential suicide bombers from within the Muslim community, as unpalatable as it may be to accept.

3. What is the message you hope to get across in “The Butterfly Hunter”?

It’s a story that came to me when I was in a coma on a life support machine in intensive care and the doctors told my family I would not survive. I had dreams and visions which I eventually found the courage in me to write down. The universality of the human experience, the frailty, contradictions and paradoxes common to all human beings and to get away from stereotypes are all key parts of my novel. Is it a case of one civilization destroying another? Is it really a case of 'you're either with us or against us?' The Butterfly Hunter for the first time, based on many true life as well as dream-vision experiences, lays open the hearts and minds of suicide bombers from the point of view of a second generation Pakistani inner-city teenage drug dealer, a successful middle class white woman, and a violent Islamic extremist who is part of an international organization bent on destruction of the western world and causing revolution to establish a Khilafa, a worldwide Muslim state, as part of the final showdown in the last battle to achieve the victory of Islam over the Kuffar (“the infidels”).

4. What advice do you have for writers who may find their book censored or banned by a community?

If you find yourself banned or censored, don't worry. Be brave and tell the truth as you see it. Someone once said about writers, 'liars prosper but not for very long!' The Butterfly Hunter is my truth as I see it. If one section of the community views me as anti-Muslim and the other side sees me as a silent Jihadi, then that really is their opinion of my work.

5. Do you plan on writing more books in the future, and will they be as controversial as “The Butterfly Hunter”?

Writing for me is a necessary intrinsic process; I feel the need to write, so I write. If the next story happens to grow organically as The Butterfly Hunter did into something explosive and controversial, then I certainly will not shy away from that. I could have had a comfortable life as a simple doctor, but I have sacrificed that so I can tell the truth about the single most important issue of our generation in the form of stories that came to me in my dream-visions!

Junaid Abbas Bhatti
The Baron of Ballencrieff

Ballencrieff House, London WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom
Mob: +44 (0) 7980 586 243 - Tel: +44 (0) 207 193 5766
Email: junaid@ballencrieff.net - Web: www.ballencrieff.net

Click here to read more about "The Jewel of Medina"

Click here to read more about "The Satanic Verses"

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