Novelist Yasmina Khadra receives 2010 Campus de Cristal award

PARIS (France)- Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra, whose real name is Mohammed Moulessehoul, received Thursday in Belgium the 2010 Campus de Cristal award from the Grande Ecole of the Province of Liege, a source from that institution said Friday.

The distinction is awarded every year by the prestigious school of Liege to a media or a cultural figure.

Thursday evening, Khadra held a public meeting at the Convention Centre of Liege drawing a record audience, as it was attended by some 1,700 people, according to organizers who underlined that no writer managed to draw such a large number in that auditorium before him. Under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra, the world famous writer said he was advocating for intelligence and the triumph of humanism.

In his novels, Khadra mostly presents an analysis of Algerian society. “Morituri,” one of his famous works, allowed him to be widely known. He published afterwards “Les Hirondelles de Kaboul” (The Swallows of Kabul),” L’Attentat” (The Attack) and “Les Sirènes de Bagdad” (The Sirens of Baghdad), where he explores the contemporary history and the deadly clash between the East and the West.