Defense of the Mohammedan
Uy An European Traveler Who Has
Spent Years in Mohammedan Countries
La..i. - J. ,,,-,.. Jm.... - - - .. , .i. , ,A. -Lii:,m2-tol"''i,lte--"
KTTBIAN MOHAMMEDANS BY THR NILS.
(Copyright, 1903, by T. C. McClure.)
El in Macedonia! Turks kill 50,000
I r'VirlKtffinn' finAahul Bvtrvl
And the newsboy sped down the
street, selling his papers like hot
cakes to people eager to read about th
latest atrocities of the "unspeakable. Turk."
An educated Mohammedan from Con
stantinople, on a visit to America, bought
ona of the papers and read the cable
grams and editorial comments, smiling
cynically the while.
"Do you people really believe all this?
he asked an American friend. "Do you
really believe that we Mohammedans are
such monsters of depravity, and that w
take pleasure in wiping out Christians Just
because they are Christians? Such a
course is totally opposed to the spirit of
Mohammedanism."
"Then," asked the American, "how da
you account for these massacres we hear
so much about?"
"Many of them never happen," was Ilia
reply. "They are Invented by the Mncix
donlan revolutionary committee, the Bul
garlan authorities and other enemies of th
Ottoman empire. Other 'massarres, aa
your papers pall them, are really battle
When the Macedonian rebels are beaten
In a fight, the survivors call It a massacre."
"And what about the Armenian affair?
Surely the same remarks can't apply;
there."
"The Armenians and the Kurds," said
the Mohammedan apoloRist, "have always
been at deadly feud. For centuries Ar
menians have slain Kurds, and Kurds Ar
menians. It Is not a matter of religion at
all; it Is a matter of race, of politics, of
commerce there are a thousand points of
difference. The Armenians have become a
race of cowardly hucksters and usurers,
while the Kurds have remained a race of
warriors. The Kurds are paying back old
cores, and the Armenians can no longer
keep their end up." as you would say. That
is all there Is to it.
"Believe me, any slaughter of Christians
In Turkish dominions, or In any other Mo
hammedan country, arises from some other
raw- than trie ffict ttiat they- am Chris
tians. We. have no animosity toward Olirls
tlaiut. They aro what the Prophot. called
people of a bock' ('ahl kitab') that is to
says followers of a revenled religion and
kindly treatment of them la expressly com
manded la the Kontn.. They- ara tolerated
by via, and even ccrorished nnd assisted
whim, they deaarveu It- Ixk' reason, at high
of the poor. The Mohammedan peasant
would probably offer the same rvamms for
killing them that the Ituaaljiis offer for the
Kishincff massacre and the persecution of
the Jews. Others are politlc.il plotters of
the moat desperate, anarchistic type, who
think nothing of blowing up a mosque full
cf pecpic with dynamite, or of poisoning
the stream opaa which a Muhammfilitn
Jews nnd Christians of all serfs are per
niltttil to live and practice their religion
within his territory. And the better Jewa
and Christiana they are tlio better he like
them, he avers.
The Mohumnv. dan asserts that he ex
tends tolerance to tho practices and exac
tions of any fulth, be It what It may.
Ilia religion teaches him reverence not ouly
A COPTIC SCHOOL TOLERATED BT THE MOHAMMEDANS.
character and good works."
"Then, If you are so tolerant," said the
still skeptical American, "why all this trou
ble?" "There are many reasons," said the Mo
hammedan. "A great many of the Chris
tians In Turkey and throughout the Levant
are not by any means nice people. It you
had them here I don't think you would like
thorn.
"Many are usurers who grind the faces
village depends for water.
"If they simply practiced the Christian
religion, und were other wine peaceable,
lavr Qblding, useful subjects nobody would
trouble them. Hundreds of thousands of
other Christians, who have those qualities,
live under Turkish rule and have uo com
plaint to iruike about it."
ThL-i, In brief. Is the defense of tho Mo
hammedan. He denies Btrenuouxly that he
la intolerant, and points to the fact that
for his own creed, but for ail revealed re
ligions. If tho Solvation army went
through the streets of a fanatical Moham
medan illy, beating Its drums and flaunting
Its banners, it would meet with nono of the
Insults which it sometimes encounters In
the slums of western cities. As toon as the
Mubammf dani under -toed that this curloua
and novel demonstration was ordansd by
the religious belief of the actors, they
would treat It not tnetely with polite tol-
THH RAW MATERIAL OF A MOHAMMEDAN ARMT.