CHRISTIAN AND MAHOMEDAN CONDUCT.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 71, 19 December 1896, Page 4

CHRISTIAN AND MAHOMEDAN CONDUCT.

A COMPARISON. 'l'm. hideous, ma-saeres in Armenia and in Oon-'.antinople, though apparently religious outbreaks, ore racial, ami have been aii'l will continue to he fostered by lire trembliny coward of Vildiz Kiosk. As long as lu- i.s hauntrd by the tenor of assassination, so long will this go on, iiml tlul Km km- must last until the knife ot' a new Sule'man l'a.-ha relieves the world of one of the most contemptible Sultans who ever disgraced the Ottoman throne. to vain did he cause to be beaten to death that, astute old statesman, Midhat Pasha; in vain did he reward the mcreiles.s butcher win. did it with one of the best puslillHcs in his ■•ill. lie cannot crush the Young Turkish Party, whilst there is nothing to prevent the murderer of Midliat turning a"aiiist him and murdering him in his turn. . The religion ot Mahomet is perfectly suited to the Oriental. Nay, I will go farther and say that it is infinitely better far him, infinitely more likely to pro dliec peace and goodwill amongst the various creeds and races which make up the heterogeneous hordes that constitute the Ottoman Empire than Christianty. When v<e talk of the horror of Mahomet's teaching cr only see the scimitar "learning over the heads of his: converts, we forget that for every man that perished by that weapon thousands have prsscil under the swords of contending .-rets of Christians, have been racked, burnt, murdered, and their homes laid waste Neither the religion ot Mahomet nor that of -Jesus is answerable for these nameless tragedies. The moral regeneration of nations Ins nothing to ilo° with their religions—in fact it is always in spite of them. The fires of persecution are only smouldering, and would burst out but for the strong arm of the layman. The innate laws of right and wrong have been gradually evolved cut of human necessity. The anthropomorphic ape, and the human troglodyte were thieves and seized each others women. Our morals may be better than theirs, but it is thanks to the policeman and private enquiry agent ; and ccrtainlv the world would he a worse place to live in if we got rid of these and only retained the priest. Now, one of the most potent forces that is making for evil in the East is religion—no particular religion /",• u", but "the terrible creed hatreds that are fanned into fury for political motives. To say that the Turk, as a Turk, must be rooted out—being unlit for civilisation—is just one of those terrible religions war cries that filled France with The blood of the Huguenots and devastated the plains of Holland. On the contrary, the Turk is distinctly a lawabiding man, an excellent father, a sober, laborious husbandman. Moreover, he is an absolute believer in a future state because he likes the idea of the heaven he has got to go to, instead of disbelieving in it as most Christians do in the formin which it is presented to them in the wild ravings of the Alexandrian monk To >•(■»///</"believe in a future state is a good deal'towards being a respectable member of society. The'lower orders of Mahomedans generally throughout the wol-lif compare more than favourably it) morals with the corresponding class in Christendom. And taking the Ten Commandants as a convenient and simp'c test, let us see how they are obeyed amongst the two creeds As'to the First, this in its belter and obvious meaning is m,hj observed by the Monotheistic Mahomcdan. The Second is rigidly observed by the Mahomcdan, but flagrantly violated by the Christian faith. The Third is used by the Mahomcdan as a pious invocation ; by the Christian its chief ute is to try and get tiic 'ruth out. of a witness in the witness-box—-often with conspicuous failure. The Fourth is out of -late eveywhere, and but for the exigencies of the offertory would vanish altogether. The Fifth is also in decadence. The Sixth is a muter of police regulations in all lands. The Seventh, as regards Mahometans, is limited by their domestic and social laws and arrangements, lu Christendom it is limited by want of money or .social position, atid by the higher law, " Thou shalt not be found out." The Eighth is of too wide an application to know what, strictly speaking, comes under this head. The an is certainly a thief, und so is the Neapolitan. The Turkish official certainly has mazy idea's el' wviua >.l '"'"„, and equally so has the Italian po-t-olhce or railway official. The Ninth and Tenth arc matters lor the pulpit, and have no direct bearing on tlie question. The conclusion it is wished to arrive at is that the teaching of Islam is the best there is at present for the minds which false educational ideas have produced in all Oriental races alike—Fortnightly Review.