“It is all too easy to rummage through the past and find nothing but a list of grievances,” she writes.
Strangely, MacMillan spares Muslim cultures from this criticism and even comes close to justifying their long- festering resentments.
“The Crusades, the defeat of the Moors in Spain, Western imperialism in the 19th century and the evils of the 20th all add up to a dark tale of Muslim humiliation and suffering,” she writes. “Such history keeps followers angry and motivates and attracts new recruits.”
No suggestion here that these cultures carry any responsibility for their own destinies. But what of their oppression of women and attacks on modernity?
Almost every major country and civilization gets whacked in these pages for its misdemeanors. Yet Iran, an ancient, grievance-ridden culture par excellence now led by a semi-crazed president, escapes censure. As for Pakistan — a clear and present danger to the world if ever there was one — it isn’t even mentioned. Surely its tragic history was worth a word.
No one will dissent from MacMillan’s view that history must be prudently handled, but prudence must not mean inconsistency or evasion.
The book is published in the US under the title ‘Dangerous Games.’
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