Another example of what might be called censorship, though I could laugh about this one as it wasn't what I was talking about so much as the way that I intended to say it. The bit about Hind originally said "Hind, the wife of the leader of Quraish, cut open the body of the Prophet's uncle Hamza, tore out his liver and chewed upon it. So much for the feminist touch." Quite apart from it being the truth of the matter, I thought it had a bit more resonance and punch. But the producer thought it would be just a bit too upsetting for the listeners at 7.20am, who might well be in the middle of eating their breakfasts. But that's war for you. I heard much worse from the Bosnian refugees.

As the first planes and buses began to ferry their human cargo from the UK back to Kosovo on Monday, hopes were voiced that within a couple of weeks, after months of dislocation, the refugees in this country can go home. And no matter how pretty the view from a Sighthill tower block, I imagine they will be glad to return to more familiar scenery.

But however familiar the Kosovo landscape, for them it will no longer be the same country. War scars the memory, and eyes that have witnessed war’s atrocities find it hard to look on their perpetrators with compassion. But as their anguish is free to express itself, and their frustration is free to turn to anger, let us hope for their sakes that they choose mercy over revenge.

Let them look to their Islamic heritage for an example. The Prophet’s community were also persecuted, by the Quraish tribes of Makkah, whose hatred of the Muslims was prodigious. After one notorious battle, the women of the Quraish roamed the battlefield mutilating the muslim dead, while Hind, the wife of the leader of Quraish, tore apart the dead body of the Prophet’s uncle Hamza, to desecrate it. So much for the feminine touch.

The muslims were outraged, but Muhammad quoted from the Qur’an: “If you chastise, chastise as you have been chastised, yet surely, if you are patient it is better for the patient. And be patient and your patience comes only from God.” Whereupon he forbade his community from responding to atrocities in kind, and counselled forgiveness.

When, some years later, he finally led an army large enough to overwhelm the Quraish, as exchange for their submission he offered not recrimination and retribution but amnesty.

With his former enemies arrayed before him, Muhammad spoke to them in the words of forgiveness which, according to the Qur’an, Joseph spoke to his brothers when they came to him in Egypt, saying: “Truly I say as my brother Joseph said: This day there shall be no upbraiding of you, nor reproach. God forgives you, and God is the most Merciful of the Merciful.”