The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-09-07
A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

From the Times-Herald.
The reported obstinacy of the sultan
in standing out against the JOINT pro-
posals of the European powers Is nope
ful IT will help the civilized govern
ernments to see the point at once OF
moral obligation and of opportunity
the immediate and paramount uuty
which they owe to the common brother-
hood of humanity. The ottoman RUE
under the incurably vicious domination
of islam is a huge and awful organic
crime. For the great governments OF
Europe. which have it perfectly III
their power to end the rule which by
every right has forfeited its right to be-
it Is itself q crime.
In the first place. the sultan has long
held his throne only on the conditioned
surferance of Great Britain and the
other powers. 1t would years ago have
gone to pieces but for their guarantee
and support. The condiIons on the
part of the sultan on winch Sucn pro-
lection has been extended have been
deiied and falsified in the most ilagrant
ways possible 1t Is not alone the hor-
rors and massacres of Armenia, dupli-
eating those of Bulgaria, of Sidon, of
Hosbeiyo, and of Damascus, but rather
the comprehensively fendish cruelty
of the entire Moslem administration
A century ago such things might have
failed to arrest the worlds attention
and seemed in IL measure tolerablc; TO-
day--linless every boast Of our humaner
era Is n sham and falsehood-such
things are past the point of being toll
erablc. In the sober words of Mr.. Glad
stone, "Shout of execration from the
whole world" has at last gone up. Ar
menia is not alone In being the victim
of all this unrelieved devil quality of
misrule. Armena's condition, just now
so thrust into the eye and the burning
adherence of the world. is not singu-
lar, but Is typical of the condition of
all the Christian subjects of the sultan,
whether in European or Asiatic Tur-
key.
Then the absolutely hopeless fact
about this Moslem government Is that
nothing in the way of fiendish oppres-
sions and atrocities to the point of un-
namable tortures and determination in
Armenia or i'm Bulgaria, in Syria or in
Macedonia, but what was from the
point of view of Mohammedanism COM
pletely legitimate; nothing but such
things ,as Mohammed himself by the
testimony of all his own biographers
and followers, did. commanded and
gloated over. The feeling of the Turk
or the Kurd toward the Armenian as n
"Christian dog" Is not an exception: it
Is the universal lMoslem sentiment. BY
the Koran law itself no Christian has q
right to live unless he has paid the
escape money" There is no Turkish
court where the testimony of a Chris
tan is receivable against a Moslem
BY all the teaching of their religious
system, there is nothing for the jew or
the Christian burt curse and hell fire.
AS DIR. w. II. Thompson, of New York,
himself born in Turkey, and az familiar
with Arabic Mohammcdan literature
as he is with the IInglish. says in the
September Harper's Monthly in an ar
ticle on "Tslam and the Eastern Ques-
tom: "This incurable form of bsr-
barism either must be left to complete
It's work of destroying the fairest re-
glons of the globe or civilization must
destroy 1t by the use Of it's strong
arm t..g,
Under circumstances like those which
now exist, for the great powers of Eu-
rope to leave the sultan with the sword
of Mohammed still In his imperial sway
lin countries which but for his curse
ful rule would under good laws speedi-
1y become filed with flourishing indus
tries and happy homes--would be one
of the eliminating crimes Of the CEN
fury. 1t Is high time for such a gov
ernment to be bidden 20 to Its own
place.