MUSLIM AUTHOR TO RECEIVE GERMAN CULTURE PRIZE

An ongoing controversy over a German culture prize has been resolved. A Muslim writer is set to get his part of an important award for intercultural understanding, despite initial opposition. The dispute over the 45,000-euro ($61,000) Hesse Culture Prize first broke out in May. Initially, the award was slated to go to four men from four different world religions – a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Muslim and a Jew – in honour of the value of religious dialogue. But Muslim author Navid Kermani was dropped from the quartet after he wrote an article that was critical of Christian imagery of the crucifixion. Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz and Peter Steinacker, former head of the Lutheran church of Hesse and Nassau, objected to sharing the prize with Kermani. Now the issue seems to have been resolved by a private talk in Mainz.