UAE book award rejected by prominent German academic

Sheikh Zayed Book Award board of trustees expresses regret after Juergen Habermas’s decision to not accept the award.

Prominent German philosopher Juergen Habermas said he will not accept a high-priced literary award from the United Arab Emirates, reversing an earlier decision. The 91-year-old, who is considered Germany’s preeminent contemporary philosopher, told the German news site Spiegel Online: “I declared my willingness to accept this year’s Sheikh Zayed Book Award. That was a wrong decision, which I correct hereby.” In the statement, which his publisher Suhrkamp Verlag shared with Spiegel Online, Habermas added, “I didn’t sufficiently make clear to myself the very close connection of the institution, which awards these prizes in Abu Dhabi, with the existing political system there.”