Walid al-Kubaisi is dead

Walid al-Kubaisi .Photo: Knut Falch / Scanpix

Author Walid al-Kubaisi is dead

The Norwegian-Iraqi writer and journalist Walid al-Kubaisi is dead, 60 years old.

 

Al-Kubaisi died on Tuesday afternoon. A family member informs of this on al-Kubaisi’s Facebook page.

Walid al-Kubaisi was born in Baghdad in 1958, but fled from Iraq in 1981 and came to Norway as a political refugee in 1986.

In 2016 he was awarded Free Words (Fritt Ord) Honours for his insightful contributions in Norwegian society during the last two decades.

– Walid al-Kubaisi has distinguished himself as a powerful and original writer for a number of years. His important contribution to the social debate often has a culture and religious critical perspective and is based on great insight and knowledge. This is stated in Fritt Ord’s memento on him.

He published his first book in 1996, the collection of short stories «My faith, your myth: Islam meets Norwegian everyday life». He has written several other books. After the debut book, «The Secrets of the Crescent Moon» (1998), «Racism Explained to Children: a book for children of all ages, and with all hues of skin» (2001) and «Allah’s little brown book: A selection from the Quran and the Prophet’s words» (2004).  His last book, «Ink and Blood – a family chronicle from the Middle East and Norway», was published in 2016.

Al-Kubaisi was awarded a State stipend by the then Minister of Culture, Trond Giske in 2007.

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today