Excerpt:
The veteran Algerian writer Boualem Sansal weighed in Thursday to defend his compatriot Kamel Daoud, who is at the centre of storm over his claim that sex "is the greatest misery in the world of Allah".
Daoud, who won France's top literary prize the Prix Goncourt last year, sparked outrage for an article he wrote in France's Le Monde daily in the wake of the wave of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve.
Hundreds of women had reported being molested or robbed by a mob of mostly North African and Arab men in the western German city.