Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 57
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 57 More important is the apparent denial that Jesus was crucified and died on the Cross (4:157), and the assertion that Christians worship three gods. ’ (4:171, 5:73,116) (p. 83). No book of Montgomery Watt would be complete without the customary attack on the character of the Holy Prophet(sa) and he does not disappoint the Western reader as he writes: ‘the idealisation of Muhammad and early Islamic society is also of dubious truth. Muhammad must have shared in the un-Islamic beliefs of his fellow Meccans when he was a young man. ’ (p. 86). Muhammad(sa) is made out to be a man who did not keep his word when faced with adversity. For example, in Muhammad at Medina, Watt writes: ‘It was of course, one of the sacred months in which there was supposed to be no bloodshed, but Muhammad had not shown him- self specially observant of sacred times. ’ (p. 47). Watt has continued to stress in all his books that Muhammad(sa) was the aggressor and spread his religion by the sword and by force. In the same book he writes: ‘Sometimes Muhammad encouraged energetic men to use force against their neighbours. One was Surad b. Abdallah of the tribe of Azd Shanu’ah, who came to Muhammad with a dozen or so men; Muhammad put him in charge of these men. . . and gave them carte blanche to fi ght in the name of Islam against any non-Muslims in the region. ’ (p. 120). Watt has certainly been the stalwart for the West in the last few decades and he certainly has had his say in more ways than one and has almost tired himself out, as he himself freely admits in the Preface to Muhammad at Medina : ‘I have said my say about Muhammad, and, if I try to say more, am as likely to mar as to better the impression I have tried to con- vey. ’