TURKEY’S POSITION IN ISLAM.

Shannon News, 17 October 1922, Page 4

TURKEY’S POSITION IN ISLAM.

PROSPECTS OF A HOLY WAR

Dr. E. M. L. Morgan, who visited ! Levin last week in connection with,| the Red Cross organisation, spent a j good many war years in Mesopotamia. and; the Near Egst, and closely studied the politics and language of j the Arabs and Maihommedans. He throws a new light on the position of the Turks in the Islamic world. To anyone conversant with the Mahommedan and his religion, he Said, it is quite obvious that the Turk can never I’aise a Jehad, or holy war, among Mahommedans other than the Turk.: He endeavoured to do so during the Great War, and failed, and the possibility of ,his doing so in the present crisis does not exist. Mahommedans, are ,like the Christians, divided into two great sections, only one of which acknowledges a temporal head. The Sunnis acknowledge as head the Khalifa, or spiritual successor of Mahommed. The Shiahs await the re-com-ing ol' their temporal head, who disappeared into a cave' north of Samarra in the twelfth century. Meanwhile, they acknowledge no leader. Therefore, any appeal by the Sultan of Turkey is unheeded by them. Mahommed. who sprang from the tribe of the Q’araish (Koreysh), distinctly laid it down during his lifetime that the Khalifate should be held in perpetuity by the head of the Q’araish tribe. During the troublous centuries that followed his death, the Q’araisih tribe was not sufficiently strong to prevent the assumption of the Khalifate by the Abbasside Sultans of Egypt, by the last of whom, Selim, it was transferred to the Sultan of Turkey, by whom and his descendants, it has been held until recently. But a great change in the Mahommedan world took place during the Great War. The present head of the Q’araish tribe, the Grand Shareef of Mecca, hereditary guardian of the Holy Places of Islam, saw in the Great War his opportunity to gain the Khalifate, for the holding of which lie had the authority of Mahommed himself. He threw off the Turkish yoke. The Turk replied by shelling Mecca and even bombarding the Kaaba, the Mahommedan Holy of Holies, and so incensed the whole Mahommedan world outside of Turkey. The Mahommedans of Arabia flocked to the standard of the Grand Shareef of crowned him King of Mecca, and, with him, joined the British in driving the Turk out of Arabia and

Palestine. Since which time the Sunni Mahommedans acknowledge the King of Mecca as their Khalifa, and proof of this is that they have accepted his second son-, Feisul, as King of Mesopotamia, the first- son being heir-apparent to the Khalifate: at Mecca. Therefore, the Sultan of Turkey is now recognised as Khalifa by the Turk only. The religion of the Turk is not pure Mahommedanism. -True Mahommedans are friendly to Christians, regarding them as, equally with themselves, “People of the Book.” In fact, they regard Christ as one of their minor prophets. Turkish- oppression of the Arab for the last, six hundred years has left the Arab with little sym pathy for the Turk. The Arab has nothing to gain, and all to lose, by jofning with the Turk in a holy war.