EVANSVILLE — As a storyteller who must get inside all his characters' heads, Khaled Hosseini can understand the post-9/11 fear of and antagonism toward Muslims reported among people and politicians in the United States and across Europe.

"I can see it, if you don't have any exposure to the Muslim community, perhaps, and you've never taken the time to understand the religion and the culture, and all you've seen is the news stories about terrorists," says the author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns," "but the reality is a lot more complex than that."

That reality is among topics the best-selling author likely will address today, when he speaks at 7 p.m. at The Centre in a free, public presentation sponsored by the University of Evansville International Speaker Series and the Evansville Celebration of Diversity Lecture Series.

Hosseini believes the anti-Muslim controversy in the United States is more smoke than flame, however, fueled by talk show firebrands and political campaigners and stoked by news media coverage.

"For a variety of reasons, the media being one of them, a lot of people equate Islam with the likes of Bin Laden and the Taliban," he said.

While news stories about those and other extremists "who have somehow managed to hijack the name and reputation of Islam" grab headlines, he said, "there aren't enough stories about perfectly peaceful, taxpaying, tolerant, reasonable Muslims who are just like anybody else."

(Read full interview at link below.)