Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 34
34 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi The status of women had been markedly affected by the return to fundamentalist Islam. The burqa or veil was back in vogue. And despite all the propaganda that the West could muster against the alleged second class citizen status of women in Islam, the rate of conversion to Islam by women in the West in the last decade had reached such high proportions that it had become a most worrying and alarming matter of urgency for the West that needed drastic action. P OI N T OF CON T E N T ION The main complaint of the British that has been levelled against the ethnic minorities who have come to live and settle in their coun- try, is that the minorities do not do enough to adapt to the ways of the host country so as to be accepted into society, even if it means having to forego some or all of their ancient customs and religious beliefs. This is especially aimed at the British Muslims whom they regard as stubborn and a serious hurdle to establishing a fully Western-orientated cultural society. The worry and fear of the Muslims for the West is a real one. They know that most Muslims living in the West regard it as a god- less society in which Islam provides spiritual guidance that other faiths no longer offer. They are also worried that the muezzins call- ing the faithful to prayer are drowning the sound of church bells. Most Muslims living in the West are unbending in their determina- tion to preserve their own standards of value and to protect their exclusively Islamic view of the world. Of course, the Muslims want to be liked; they want to fit in; they want to succeed. But they want to be Muslims far more. And this is the sore point that touches the sensitivity of the Christians in the West who are deeply envious of the Muslims’ adherence to moral virtues which are sadly lacking or non-existent in the West today. For people who hold these views against the Muslims, they would do well to heed Roy Hattersley’s comments on the subject. Roy