The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-04-29

These are the precepts of the Koran -
eight in defence of Gods true religion, as
it behooveth you to fight for it. BE not neg
ligent in seeking out the unbclievers, and
when the months wherein We are not per-
mitted to assail them shall be passed then
kill the unbelievers wherever ye shall find
them. 0 true believers, contract not friend
ships with any beside yourselves! Vhey
will corrupt You. 0 true believers, take
not the Jews or Christians for your friends
They are friends the one to the other but
whosoever among you taketh them for his
friends he is one of them" This admoni-
ton to absolute and resolute enmity toward
all persons of another faith, the require
ment of religious intolerance as moral
rule and q positive law, is to be found in
every part, on almost every page OF the
Moslem scripture, and the incubation to
kill and root out the unbelievers is q correla-
tive and consequence of the instruction.
This is sufficiently we'll known to all
acquainted, in even the most superficial
way, with the history Of the Mohammedan
dominion but it is a fact that it is timely
press, writing in the interest of England,
which is the greatest of Mohammedan
Powers, invites the world to credit the
theory that the 'true believers" of the
Ottoman Empire are like the human
creatures of civilized and Christian coun-
tries as to their moral and intellectual at
tributes; that they are more coffee colored
and more loosely arrayed and rather less
addicted to soap and water, but not different
otherwise; that they are capable Of ciyiliza-
ton and social sentiments, and that it is pos
sble to organize on them as main clinical
element political fabric possessing the
general form Of the States Of Europe and
animated by the same enlightened spirit Of
mingled commerce and culture. Ii this
were true the pressure Of civilization against
the existence of the Turkish dominion in
the Balkan Peninsula, and in Armenia and
Asia Minor, would be absurd and mischev-
Gus. Indeed, the pressure would not exist,
for the struggle that occurs at the edge OF
an advancing civilization is for the extinc-
ton of inconsistent elements, and Moslem-
ism would not be an inconsistent element if
the pictures drawn by British pens were
accurate. That they are not accurate; that
the possibility assumed for the purposes of
British politics is an impossibility is evil
dent from the consideration that such pre-
letter of an ancient law, but the expression
of the vital spirit of Mohammedan life; a
spirit as vital to-day in Mohammedan coun-
tries as ever; q spirit instilled into the
mind Of the true believer from his cradle
and exercising constant influence through
lie Oh his thoughts or acts. Although
the result is only forced upon the
attention of distant nations when from
time to time this spirit blazes out into such
acts as the Bulgarian massacres, yet in
lesser extreme degree 1T is always in opera
ton, and is what renders impossible the
permanent tranquility Of countries in which
Moslems and Christians are neighbors.
No doubt there are passages in the Bible
that, as interpreted by our Puritan fore
fathers, were practically as savage and in
tolerant as any part of the Moslem law ; but
it is an effect of the progress Of enlighten-
ment to soften the application of such pas
sages by Interpretation till they become dead
letters, and the civilized Christian world
to-day shudders with horror over the chron-
icle Of the prosecutions practised in other
ages in the name of Christianity.
This is what is characterized as Gloss of
religious convictions" but it is certainly a
gain to the happiness and good of mankind
when it loses the conception that it is neces-
sary to butcher and torture all who do not
worship in the same way. Religious con-
viction" of this sort has never been lost in
Moslem countries, and they are in that re-
spect in the condition morally in which all
the rest of the world was during the darkest
ages Of persecution. In lesser degree the
Christianity Of Russia is as to this point in
the same condition rs Islamism everywhere.
Christianity is not absolutely inimical to the
growth of knowledge and the spread of in
telligence in any country, while Islamism is;
but in Russia that comparative indifference
to creeds and to religious divisions that has
made such progress in the most enlight-
ened Christian countries is as unknown as
it was when men bored the tongues of Qua
kers for their irreligion. On each side in
this conflict, therefore,. there is religious
fcrvor that can scarcely be comprehendod in
countries where the propagation of religion
by war is excluded from the number of pos
sibilities.
From the mountains of Armenia to-day
Russia turns her eyes toward Palestine with
the same deep fervor, the same spirit Of mill
tant piety, that inspired the Crusaders when
all Europe was awakened to the movement
for the conquest Of that land
ovor whose walked those blessed feet
That eighteen hundred years ago were nailed,
For our redemption on the bitter crosg.
Indeed the redemption of the holy places
OF Palestine, il the conflict may be stretched