I'll take that heart

"Mustafa Sa'eed, gentlemen of the jury, is a noble person whose mind was able to absorb Western civilization but it broke his heart. These girls were not killed by Mustafa Sa'eed but by the germ of a deadly disease that assailed them one thousand years ago." pg 29.

This passage in my opinion is a counterstory of most Western civilization literature because it is bringing a different side to light other than that of the Western civilization. If we look at Tarzan we see the ideals and concepts of Western civilization as redemptive or the intellect of the west was what brought him to Jane and to love.

In this passage Mustafa is under the influence of the west it's ideology, society, and religion which seems to have corrupted his heart and his ability to love because of the intellect and ideology passed on to him from the west unlike the story of Tarzan. He also states later on the same page that this is not him it is a fake(paraphrasing). From this passage and the second sentence of the passage I chose gave me a rather unique outlook and explains more as to why the intellect and ideologies of the west had destroyed his heart.

He had been going to school in the west for quite some time at this point and time. I believe that what makes this counterstory effective is the backround of Mustafa, he is a muslim living in a western world. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that when Maxwell referred to the "germ of a deadly disease that assailed them a thousand years ago" he was referring to the rise of Muhammed and islam. I believe that maybe this breaking of the heart occured because he lived in the west and his heart was back home. He could have also had troubles with the conflict of morals this may have caused him to cave into the pressures of the west.