Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 3
3 C H A P T E R O N E : E a r ly A t t a c k s o n I s l a m a n d t h e Holy P r oph e t ( S a ) The attacks on Islam, as with all religions, started at the very time of its inception. As soon as the Holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him ), made the claim to prophethood, practically the whole of Mecca turned against him overnight. No stone was left unturned in the Meccans’ evil and ne- farious designs to put a quick end to this new faith, to this idea of the worship of just one God. The followers of Muhammad(sa) were meted out the severest punishments and the cruellest tortures ever inflicted upon any people in the history of mankind. The early attacks on Islam were those of a physical nature; the thinking of its enemies being that a quick end to Muhammad(sa) would nip the new religion of Islam in the bud; and to do this the enemies were bent upon wiping it out by every available means. But true religions have a latent resilient quality, a feature that cannot be taken away by force. So with Islam. These forceful attempts proved unsuccessful and with every passing day Islam spread with unprecedented success and , as his- tory bears out, very soon the whole of Arabia had accepted Islam. Even after the death of Muhammad(sa), Islam continued to gather momentum and before long, it was knocking on Europe’s door. It was roughly at this time that the attacks on Islam took on a literary mode, headed by some Christian and Jewish writers who took it as their birthright and raison d’etre to try and find faults and inconsistencies in the Holy Qur’an and the Traditions of Hadith. They would use any means to attack Islam and to single out the Holy Prophet(sa) for the vilest of abuse.