Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-10-22
ANNAPOLIS ND SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER g. 1saa
LIGHT UPON ISLAM.
A BOLD DEFENSE or THE DOCTRINES
or THE KORAN.

Points OF the Religions That Have for
Their Foundations the RibIe and the
Koran Islam Democracy.
~ Mismer could not know the east
any better than he does if he had been
born there, and we copy from his new
volume, Souvenirs du Monde Mussul-
man. few novel views and considera-
tions addressed especially TO statesmen
and thinkers:
The greater portion of the precepts OF
the Koran have meaning which es-
capes us. because that meaning is at
variance with our ideas and our man.
ners. and this is what gives rise to po-
htical errors of an incalculable reach.
The Mussulmans do not fail TO return
the attacks that are made upon them.
Conceding to us the advantage in ma
terial and scientific point of view, they
hold that the riches and learning of the
few do not make the happiness of the
many, and they claim superiority for
their moral aud social constitution.
Essentially democratic in its origin,
Islam has sumptuary law which puts
a tax of 2l5 per cent. upon the jewels of
women and upon all objects of luxury.
This money has served for centuries to
assist poor tradesmen and to buy them
tools. Thanks to the prohibition of
wine and spirits. the social problem is
solved for them. On seeing-the dangers
that hover over our civilization, the
Mussulmans compare it to the smoking
remains of a burned tent. They think
that if 1t should disappear in the flames
of anarchy for want of an organic prin-
ciple il would be incapable of rising
again from Us ashes, while their faith
maintains order in everything, the con-
ditiou sine qua non of progress.
'You accuse us, they say, ''of being
depraved. Are you less so, you who
keep up perpetual orgies in your great
cities, expose your half clad wives and
daughters at balls and feasts, andEallow
them TO be whirled around in the arms
of anybody and everybody? You re-
proach us for our ignorance. In order
to pass through life with honor your in
struction is not SO good as ours, Thanks
to the proverbs and the rules of wisdom
that are taught to our children, they
conduct themselves like little men
With you the men, and even the
learned, conduct themselves like
little children. You Charge : our
functionaries with venality. Who
contributes to its establishment if it is
not the vulgar herd of traders of every
class that Europe has scattered all over
the east? You cry down our judiciary.
We too have right to accuse yours. You
charge us with fatalism. Fatalists we
are, just lilIe~your learned men and your
philosophers, who base their calculations
upon the immutability of natural laws.
Resigned in the face of plaques, cata-
clysms and death, we say 1T was writ
ten. For the rest we follow the words
of the prophet.
"One day the prophet asked an Arab
visitor what he had done with his camel
The Arab replied, Il have left him at
thy gate. Hast thou tied himT inquired
the prophet. No, have left him to the
care of God Thou hast done wrong
said Mohammed. Thou shouldst first
have tied him, and then have recon-
mefided him to God
'The Christian doctrines of predesti-
nation and of grace are more depressing
than our fatalism. Your ignorance of
Islam makes you confound Mussulman
slavery with ancient slavery and that
which existed until recently in Russia
and in Brazil With the Mussulmans
there are no slaves. All are brothers,
not in the Platonic sense of the Bible.
but actually, having the same laws and
the same positive duties according to
the terms of the Koran Unlike Chris
tianity, Islam has never treated as sal
able things. transmissible with the land,
troops of men who professed the com
mon faith, as was done with the serfs
of the Middle Ages, the moujiks Of
Russia, and the negroes of your colonies.
Prisoners of war are the only slaves that
if recognizes. but their children are born
free. and they themselves can become
SO by embracing Islam.
1t is the custom from time immemo-
rial III certain countries for parents to
part with their children for money, in
order to ward off poverty and open up
TO themselves a career of fortune. BY
virtue of Mussulman equality this ca
reer is limitless in the east. How many
slaves have become pashas, generals
and ministers? Almost all the sultans
have been the sons of slaves. The black
slaves taken from central Africa find in
Egypt and in Turkey fate incompar-
ably superior to that of the slaves of
Your colonies. Slavery is for savages
the first step toward civilization. If
their recruiting and their transportation
give rise to well founded protests, the
fault is not with Islam. Neither the
Bible nor the Koran is responsible for
abuses.
The Mussulmans proclaim the supe-
riority of their Allah: but they acknowl-
edge Moses as prophet and Jesus as
Rouh Allah. the soul of God. Their
veneration for Jesus extends to the
mother. The immaculate conception,
introduced into Catholicism by Plus TX,
has been for twelve centuries Mussul-
man belief.
ITO the extreme simplicity of the
dogma must be added the positive enjoy
ments which the paradise of Mohammed
opposes to the platonic joys of the
Christian paradise, IN order to compre-
hend the resistance of Islam to all at
ternpts at conversion. Christianity is
a menace, Islamism a promise said
Napoleon [, and his opinion is worthy
of meditation. Paris Figaro.