LIGHT IN THE EAST

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1931, Page 5

LIGHT IN THE EAST

MOHAMMEDANISM CRUMBLING. ADVANCE OF CHRISTIANITY. MENACE OF BOLSHEVISM. WELLINGTON-, August 5. It was a fascinating tale that the Lev. W. W. Cash, general secretary of the Church Missionary Society, London, told the members of the Rotary Club yesterday. His sub.ect was “.uohammedanism,” and it might have been added, its triumph and decay. Away back in 623 A.D., Mr Cash said when Mohammed lay dyirg in the libjtle town of Medina in Arabia, preparations had been made for the assembling of an army that was to lead the Mohammedan conquest of the world. After the prophet died .the firsjt caliph ordered the array to march forward. The victorious progress of the army was described, and Mr Cash went cn to speak of the rise of Turkey. Then he jumped forward to the end of the nineteenth century, when the traders and politicians of -the west intr duced what might be described as liberalism in the Mohammedan world, mostly represented by the desire for education which largely took the form of learning the Korftn by. heart Upon which : ll know' ledge and fcthies were based, the bodk being regarded as (the recreated Vot'd of God. , Into that Setting was introduced western learning, Western science with all its wonders ,which meant the gradual opening of the Mohammedan mind. The introduction of a new educational system on western lines had a profound effect on the Moslem mind and prepared him for the changes that were to come after the war. When in 1914 Turkey unfolded the green flag—the very one which was said to have left Medina with the first Mohammendan Army—it was feared that it meant a Holy War, for its very exhibition meant that every Mohammedan should fight for it, but when some of the Mohammedan people heard that Germany was fixed up in it they knew ;t could not be a Holy. War, and the appead fell very flat; in' some parts of i.*oslem world; so much 60 that it was not very long before the Arabian forces were fighting against Turkey, delighted , at the opportunity of throwing off the yoke of that country. So it came, about that after the Var thousands of Mohammedans went back to .then* own countries with an entirely new outlook, which brought about revolutionary changes; Turkey abol.shed the Caliphate and dethroned the Sultan drove them out, and elected a president. It was thought that there might be trouble as the Caliph was (the'head of the faith, yet the Caliph was caricatured as a buffoon ns he left Constantinople. India Moslems made a protest, stating that it would have been better had Turkey never became Mohammedan Ut all. 1• f } ' COMPLETELY MODER-VISED. Since 1924 Turkey had become completely modernised, Arabic characters have been changed to Roman, the fez had been abolished, and the women’s veils were gone. Before there weie two compartments on the trams, one open and comfortable for men, the other walled in and close, with only a small window to peep through, so that the women could not be seen. Now the women sat side by side with the men ino ordinary Western clothes and there is co-education. Another striking change had taken place in Persia. The old Shah of Persia was a leader of Mohammedanism—the new one was a common man, who was a village lad. A conscript for service he became a soldier, worked his way up until he became a colonel, then realising that the Shah was unpopulaf an dwas not doing his best for the country, he inarched his battalin' into Teheran, went to the House of Parliament, and turned out the Cabinet and Government, appointed himse'f Minister o War, and began to admin ner the ountrv for the good of the people and did it so well that they made him Sh.ir.' That was one of the most extraordinary happenings.

When the speaker was in Persia three years ago., he asked an archaeologist friend who knew the country well what was his opinion of the state of Mohammedanism. “Mohammedanism,” he said, “is dead.” The visitor protested fiat it did not seem to be so with the common people. His friend replied .that the common people did not count, and added that there was not an educated man in Persia who was a Mohammedan. Great social changes were going forward in Turkey and Egypt-, changes following "the emancipation of the women, the alteration of the marriage law from polygamy to monogamy co-education, the new divorce laws—a new social order largely influenced b> the young men and women who were the leaders of thought in these coun-

tries. In Cairo there were two hundred printing pte'Sses engaged in th' publication of translations of the bea. hooks of the Western world .Twelve sets of the last; “Encyclopaedic Britau nica” were sold to Arabs in Mesopot amia. This meant the breakdown o. Islam, and its failure as a religionsystem. Once regarded as a rock, it i- «. literally crumbling to pieces.

THE THREAT OF BOLSHEVISM. Unfortunately most o>f the countries mentioned bordered or were close tu Russia, and all of them were more or less under Bolshevik rule. It ha spread itself out to the borders of Af ghanistan and Persia, and its influenc was felt in Turkey; Egypt, and even in the Sudan. Even those region where the Mongol rising began centnr ies ago were Bolshevik to-day. Thor was no mistake these new and sinistc forces were coming nearer, and if Mo bammendanism were captured by Boi slievism there would bo a colossal upheaval. With all these changes taking pine * in the mentality ,of the Mohammed,r people, with the old laws disappearin the drift of secularism may mean drift to Bolshevism. Another elemen in the breaking-up of Mohammedanism was the building-up of Christianity as a moral force and spiritual power. Seein.' no hope in secularism, the youngestudents were turning to Christianity as a means, of saving their countries from corruption, a trend which .was playing a big part in the national lit of these countries'. H they were goiu * to emerge as a progerssive people, they recognised that they must find some thing within the bounds of the Christ - ian faith, and many were being 'wersunded through education and the sot services that through .Tesus Christ lay the hope of the Moslem world.