Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 18
18 C H A P T E R T H R E E : H a t r e d f or I s l a m It is quite obvious that the West fully realises the brutality and the shamefulness of the Crusades, and with so many writers and historians relating the infamous episodes and condemning them, it would seem that they would have learnt something from them. Far from it ! The irony is that despite being tainted with these dishon- ourable facts of history, the Christian nations in power today still display the same acts of savagery and brutality. In the recent Gulf War for example, they all ganged up against one nation. The Allied Powers humbled Iraq within a matter of weeks, with their heavy aerial bombardment, killing indiscrimi- nately anyone that happened to be in their line of fire, including innocent civilians, women and children. All this was done in the so-called name of Justice. The modern-day crusaders justified this by putting a veil around their brutal actions and disguised them as those of virtue and nobility. Because the Gulf War was initially between two Muslim coun- tries, the Christian powers were not concerned as to which nation they should side with as long as it meant the destruction of at least one of them. Such is still the hatred for Islam ! Even in the present Bosnian War, the West had superficially shown concern for the wronged Bosnian Muslims and if the West had really wanted to put an end to the hostilities and atrocities be- ing perpetrated against the Bosnian Muslims, then they could have settled the war in weeks just as they did in the Gulf War, due to the massive strength of the combined Allies. But the war was allowed to continue for almost four years and things were getting progressively worse rather than better in that time. This is a classic example of the two-faced bigotry of the West, and the United Nations has been shown up yet again for its ineffectiveness and worthlessness.