Diary: We all hate terrorists. Parts 1,2 and 4 NO!

When I was a child, the knight in shining armour that we all wanted to be, when playing castle games, was Ivanhoe. The film, with Robert Taylor, had an interesting sub plot, where he aided a Jewish family, as opposed to killing them, which was in vogue then. The TV series, with Roger Moore, like his Bond, gravitas free, had no such intrigue and was easier viewing. The crusades were portrayed as noble and righteous attempts to win back the Holy Lands. The truer picture has recently been addressed. We now know that the Crusaders were not quite the fair and honourable people of legend and a thousand years later we are still aghast at the slaughter enacted in the name of Jesus.

They killed everyone when they took Jerusalem. This was not only immoral but not practical. Even the Nazis kept slaves alive to work for them. Christianity's reputation was not improved by the Pizarro and Cortes episodes in the Americas, where religion, gold and genocide were blurred into one as Spanish Foreign Policy.

Religious and military leaders from thousands of years ago are studied today and spoken of in hushed tones. What about Hannibal? Taking an elephant across a mountain and fighting the leading military force of the day? No one says, ? Irresponsible absent father. Why didn?t he stay at home ?? We even love Napoleon, who was a ?brilliant? strategist one minute then sets off for non-globally heated Russia the next. 'Not tonight. It's freezing.'

One leader, who seems to be beyond criticism just now, is Saladin. Muslims are being targeted as never before in the press so it is ironic that Saladin still stands out as noble and special. He treated the Crusaders with dignity, despite them travelling so far just to piss him off. But was he so special? OK, he was morally superior to the Crusaders but, as mentioned, they were a little extreme, even by the standards of the day. But, worthy of reverence, a thousand years later?.... Yes, because of the present situation. Wonderful role models like Saladin are important in reminding people that the Muslims were not always portrayed so negatively.

The British preacher Abu Hanza?you could not have invented him. The papers called him names such as ?Hook? as he has lost his hands. If any other disabled person was so described there would have been an outcry and legal action. He is outspoken and calls for death for a variety of people who oppose his views. He is alleged to have influenced people who have bombed civilians.Hanza went to Afghanistan to fight the Russians and lost his hands and an eye. His contribution to the Russian withdrawal may have been only slight but, it may have been the straw that did it, we will never know. What we do know is that he encouraged bloodshed here and he got seven years for it.

Compare and contrast this to a so-called Christian Brit who also encouraged carnage. This ?B?, as we will call him, (or her) asked his, (OK, he is a he), peer group to back his call for violence against people who do not believe as he does. No seven years for him, he stayed prime minister (oops).

The most famous terrorist in the world, Nelson Mandela, is now treated with respect Presidents and Emperors would envy. He lingered in prison for decades whilst western companies profited from apartheid and politicians did nothing. His lack of bitterness is an example to us all.

I?ll mention the soon to be late Israeli Prime Minister Sharon here, not that he was a terrorist in the classical sense of actually bombing hotels, like Menachem Begin, another Israeli leader before he turned into a Prime Minister. Sharon was barred, at first, from holding office, by his own people, because he had allowed the massacres of thousands of Palestinians. I know what you are thinking. The Israelis do not defend the Palestinians with a great deal of vigour, normally, so it seems likely that he had been clearly and demonstrably in the wrong.

He was rehabilitated as the ?Bulldozer?. Now, I never knew whether this referred to his impressive size, or to his method of negotiating with the Palestinians. The way the Jewish people were removed from Gaza, as compared to the rather more robust demolition of homes of the Palestinians near to Israel, made independent observers wonder if he was being altogether fair.

My least forgettable televised child horror moment is not the Vietnamese girl running covered in Napalm. My most memorable TV nightmare is having seen a young Israeli soldier joking at first, with his comrades about his inability to break a stone throwing child?s arm. Then he became more and more frustrated. It won?t break! He is frantically hitting the boy?s arm with a stone as his colleagues mock him.

The look on the soldier?s face I can never forget. He had crossed a line .This child was the 'untermenchen'. A Palestinian family were being interviewed about that time and said the worst thing about the occupation is that the soldiers do the toilet on their roofs. I wonder if the people who fought in the sewers of Warsaw ever thought it would come to this.