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Crusaders and Muslims
  • beaudmjs August 2011
    Pg. 156

    William stood up slowly. It was not until he was standing straight that he trusted himself to speak. “Who are you?” he asked. “How do you know our language?”
    Kamil looked down. “When you want to kill vermin, you learn how they behave,” he said. “Many of us speak your language.”
    “Is that how you think of us, as vermin?”
    “Yes.”
    William was silent for a moment, and then looked at Kamil again. “It is curious,” he said simply. “Because that is exactly how we think of you.”
    Kamil gave a bitter laugh.
    “Well then,” he said, “we understand each other perfectly.”

    I chose this passage because it exemplifies the feelings of the Crusaders and the Muslims to each other. They both feel as if the enemy is less than a human, just vermin who are wrong about their religion, but the book shows that they are both humans with feelings and emotions, and Kamil and William come to understand that in the end.

    Beau D.
  • andreweaton August 2011
    thats a really great passage i never thought about it that way!!! also isn't that what happens in most wars, in WW2 american pappers made the Japanese out to be terrible aliens, with no code of conduct. and in WW1 the British made the germans look terrible. i guess (from what I've read) that countries try to boost moral and gain support of their citizens by making it look like the enemy are devils, and that god is on their side.

    Andrew E
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