THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1909. THE STIRRING OF ISLAM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9661, 27 November 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1909. THE STIRRING OF ISLAM.

What is to be the future of Mohammedanism now that western political i thought has percolated into the very fabric of its uncompromising creed, at any rate, in Turkey, and has disintegrated many ancient abuses and excesses of unbridled autocracy? It is curious to read that the Sultan's speech at the opening of the Turkish Parliament "displayed 1 a liberal tone towards domestic affairs." His predecessor, Abdul Hamid, who is now virtually a prisoner at Salonika, would hardly have understood an expression so entirely foreign to his entire conception of the principles of government. Mohammed the Fifth, a qujet and inoffensive student, aiid 3 pliant tool in the hands of the completely westernised Young Turks, is probably the best figurehead obtainable by the Turkish Government, which, though bent on liberal institutions in Turkey, is plainly resolved to allow no tampering with the very few territorial possessions which still remain to the Turkish Empire outside the Balkan Peninsula. Mohammed the Fifth, who is now the Caliph, or supreme head of Islam on earth, is not a person of deep religious convictions if current reports about him are true. It is said that he prefers French novels to the Koran for his private reading. The same wenkening of the ancient Mohammedan fibre is to be noted everywhere among the European Turks. If the old dour, uncompromising spirit still remained, the fusion of Christian and Moslem populations in one national army could never have taken place. The fusion of these two elements, which vvpre previously so intractable and refractory that the constant trouble between them in Macedonia and elsewhere kept all Europe in a turmoil of apprehension, is a notable and significant indication that Moham* medanism has entered upon a new phase. It is important for the world at large to guesa correctly the future course of the development of that militant creed which within a comparatively few years of Mohammed's death planted its victorious banners in Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and the whole of North Africa, and which later showed the gleam of its Crescent from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and shouted its battle cry under the walls of Vienna. Will Mohammed-

anism again btcnme a vigorous, conquering force in the world, oris its | westernisation a portent, showing that the old fires have died down for ever? That is a question which means * much for Europe. There an- farces at work on both sidts, ar.d none can say with certainty how the conflict of tendencies will turn out. But, at least, it is possible to make an estimate of the chances. Great Britain, with an ftmfire which includes more Mohammedans than are \ under the tutelage of any other European Power, ia plainly the country which is most vitally interested in the future development of I-lam-'ism. There are 62,000,000 Mohammedans in In lia, and there are 10,000,000 of them in Egypt which, though nominally under the suzerainty of Turkey, is to all int nts and purposes a British protectorate, seeing that British influence in Egypt is supported by an army of occupation which seema likely to remain there indefinitely. The strategical position of Egypt, which com mands the sea route to India—as Napoleon saw when he sent an army there more than a century ago in the hope of making himself Emperor of the East—must continue to make the adequate control of the country an integral part of Bri.ish policy. And that this is recognised by other Powers is shown by the determined efforts which are being made to open up the Red Sea coast by means of the Hedjaz railway from Damascus .to Medina, Mecca, and finally a Red Sea port in such a way that the British control of the sea route may be disputed by the concentration of troops by meana of the strategic railway. The development of Mohammedanism as a national sentiment in Egypt is consequently a question of vital interest to Great Britain. Up to the present the Mohammedans in India have been conspicuously faithful to the British rule. They have resisted the blandishments of Hindu agitators inciting them to join in the campaign of sedition. They have also resisted the appeals of the transfrontier mollahs, who persistently urge them to destroy the "feringhis." The great princes of the feudatory States, with their retinues and armies, are loyal to Great Britain, because they see that their freedom to rule their own people in the way that is traditional to them is guaianteed by the wise policy of the Government of India, and that the withdrawal of that government would mean a return to chaos. Hence the unrest which has become very marked of late in Mohammedan Afghanistan can be viewed without serious misgivings en the part of the Government of India, Next to Great Britain, the country which is most closely interested in the future developments of Mohamr medanism in France, with her colonial empire in Algeria and Tunis, and with her preponderating influence in Morocco. For her North African possessions are inhabited almost exclusively by Mohammedans, and in the hinterland extending back from the coast deep into the heart of the continent warlike rases are domiciled, who still dream that the Crescent m-jy float above the Cross. The Russian Empire contains, according to a recent estimate, about 14,00",000 Mohammedans, and in this connection Persia, with its 10,000,000 adherents of Islam, must not be forgotten, seeing thst by the recent Anglo-Russian agreement the northern portion of Perisa, including Teheran, is to remain in Russia's sphere of influence, while the south-eastern portion is left to Great Britain's commercial paramountry, both Great Britain and Russia having engaged to respect the independence and territorial integrity of Persia under its national Government. Considering that the Great Powers of Europe are now divided virtually into two camps, it is surely significant that one of these huge camps includes the bulk of the Mohammedans of the world, who may be either a source of danger or a source of strength to the nations with which they are associated. The Powers that are united in the Triple Entente, Great Britain, France and Russia, practically control Mohammedanism. Germany and Austria-Hungary, which are ranged on the other side, are self-contained, and'free trom the distracting problems conjured up by the remarkable awakening of Islamism throughout th) world.