MECCA.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1921, Page 1

MECCA.

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE MAHOMEDAN.

(By the Nawabzada Nusrat Ali Minna of Murshidabad). So “Mecca,” the name of our Holy City, is not to form the title of a musical comedy! A ridiculous fuss, I hear many Englishmen say, and several have asserted that had the title l>een used there would not have been a word of protest. lam sure there would not. Maliomedans do not, as a rule, protest. One of the greatest dangers—for England—is the silence of Islam. Mahomedans are proud, sensitive, and they are fatalists. They accept courtesy in silence —it does not say that they do not appreciate it and they accept a’ slight in silence. It is hard for Englishmen to realise how bitter and dangerous such a silence mav be!

When I first came to England at the age of eight I was a prejudiced little person. The windows of my soul looked only upon two great ideals —obsessions, if you like. One was faith in my own creed, and the other was loyalty t,o tlie great Queen-Empress to whom inv father had sworn allegiance and who held the scales of justice equal between Christian and Mahomedan, Hindoo and Parsec. The great English Government gave protection to all creeds. How one prayed mattered not, provided there Aas no bar to being a gentleman.

Little Mahomedans are taught to respect Christianity. It is part of our faith to revere and learn and try to follow all the teaching of Christ. No true Mahomedan would dare to point a linger, of scorn at any of Ilis precepts. Mahomedans may sometimes revile Christianity. But there is a difference in Christianity as it is practised and Christ’s own teaching.

. How shocked was T. then, when, the day after 1 landed, T went to tea with some little English girls and in the course of a dolls’ tea party, I was given ham sandwiches! Pig! Those pretty little fair-haired girls had offered me pig! Surely they knew it was a direct insult; Surely they realised that I could not sit at the same table with them and see them eat pig! How angi y the great Queen would bo if she knew how'her loyal subjects were insulted! But T made no sign, of course. Tam sure an impassive face gave no indication of the tumult in my heart. And .subsequent years at school and vai sity taught me toleration even for bacon and roast pork. Bait, how much would it mean to Britain’s influence in her great Mahomedan Empire if Englishmen understood how wo others feel! A British Cabinet, Minister a few years ago made a typical statement. “My ignorance of India is colossal,” he said airily. And so say ninety out of a hundred Englishmen. In the old days, when the .great Queen's power was wielded by the India Office —men who knew at least somethin*’ of their job—there were fewer ..■rounds for offence. But Government now is an affair of peoples. Mahmnedaiis and Englishmen intermix both in peace and—let it not he Forgotten— Yet such intercourse seems to teach the Englishman nothing. His ignorance is over colossal. But will Islam remain silent for ever. 1 doubt it.