"I believe the world would be a much more peaceful place," says Fouad Laroui, "if everyone practiced their religion in private." His Radio Books story begins in a French Lyceum in Casablanca like one he attended.

Fouad Laroui - The Little Impostor

Author Fouad Laroui was born in Oujda, Morocco in 1958. His father sent him to a French Lyceum in Casablanca to receive a better education. "When I was growing up in Morocco in the 1960's," he explains, "Islam was a good natured religion, comparable to the Catholicism practised by most Italians. Religion wasn't that important in daily life."

After studying physics and engineering in Paris, he returned to Morocco to work. He then moved to York, England where he received a PhD in economics before moving to The Netherlands in 1998. He currently teaches French literature and Arabic Culture and History at the University of Amsterdam.

Spiritual Freedom
"I love Amsterdam," says Laroui. "Or, I should say, I loved Amsterdam. I thought it was a tolerant city where everyone could do his own thing and spiritual and intellectual freedom were considered very important." Then in November 2004 a young Muslim extremist killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

"That murder was a turning point," he says. "I started to feel uneasy at times in my own city." What particularly disturbed him was the way ‘the Muslim' was portrayed in public debates - a backward character incapable of making a move without consulting an imam or the Qur'an. "And I heard Muslims on TV," he adds, "making allegations that indicated they had no clue about their own religion - let alone other religions."
 

Transcendent Experience
Laroui has written extensively about Islam and the Qur'an, which like the Bible, the Torah and the Bhagavad-Gita is full of contradictions. "The Qur'an isn't meant to be taken literally," he asserts. "It isn't a book of law but a religious text that can inspire readers to experience astonishment, depth and faith."

"Sooner or later, each of us faces a fundamental choice between faith and religion. I'm convinced that the ‘faith' element is present in nearly everyone. Even if you're born on an island in the Pacific Ocean and never heard of Jesus, Muhammad or the Revelations, you'll still have an occasional transcendent experience - the feeling that you're one with the world. That's the experience of an individual who suddenly feels his place in the universe. And that feeling is tremendously peaceful."
 

Identity Crisis
Laroui is especially concerned about the identity crisis facing "second generation" Muslims in Western countries: "Young people are seeking their own identity. When they're unable to integrate, they fall back on another identity, such as ‘Muslim.' It immediately gives them a clear identity."

Most of Laroui's fiction is about the search for identity. He won the Albert Camus Prize in 1996 for his tragic-comic novel ‘Les Dents du Topographe' (The Teeth of the Topographer). The narrator of this semi-autobiographical story feels like an outsider in the French Lyceum he attends.
 

The same is true of the young protagonist in Laroui's story for Radio Books. All the boys have gone home for Christmas holiday except Mehdi. His family seems not to care about him. Perhaps his fantasy friendship with a blond French boy from another class has a chance to become real and he can experience a French-style family Christmas. But at what cost?
 

“An hour later they have to go down to the dining room to eat. Mehdi is happy to have found the house. It is warm and pleasant inside. He smells the typical smell of the French. He recognises it immediately. It is a mixture of soap and beeswax, very different to the smell of herbs in Moroccan homes.”

‘The Little Impostor' by Faoud Laroui was translated by Michael O'Loughlin. The story is read by David Swatling.

The series Radio Books is an initiative of the Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren in Brussels, in association with the Flemish radio broadcaster Klara and Radio Netherlands Worldwide.