Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 65
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 65 In this regard, the Jews especially, have taken the lead role through a real sense of jealousy and envy. Muhammad’s claim to receive messages from God conflicted with their cherished belief that the Jews were the chosen people through whom alone God revealed Himself to men. This jealousy probably gave rise to another reason why the op- ponents of Islam ascribed satanic thoughts to Muhammad(sa): so that the Holy Book of Muslims is not given the ‘Divine Seal of Approval’. Even Hans Kung admits to this ‘faux pas’ by the west- ern scholars in his book Christianity and the World Religions while discussing whether the Qur’an is God’s Word or not: ‘And not just Christians, but later on the secular-minded Western religious scholars, who have automatically read the Qur’an not as God’s word, but Muhammad’s. ’ ( p. 29). Even Watt himself criticises the Western orientalists for their unbalanced criticisms of Islam in Muslim-Christian Encounters, (p. 115) : ‘While much of what they (the orientalists) said was true, they failed to balance their criticisms of Islam by any positive apprecia- tion of the values and achievements of Islam as a religion. It is thus not altogether surprising that Muslims should become hostile to orientalists. ’ BAC KGROU N D TO W E ST E R N ISE D ‘ E L I T E ’ All the arguments so far have, in one way or another, through the passage of time and historical facts, wittingly or, as in some cases unwittingly, directed us to the birth of the present day breed of Rushdies. Re-assessing the situation, if we go back to the turn of the last century in India, with the Western Colonial presence, the influence of liberal ideas and the consequent reconstruction of Muslim religious thought backed by the Western power behind the Christian mis- sionary movement, there were a great number of conversions from