The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-29
THE MOHAMMEDAN'S SIDE
GOOD WORDS FOR THE TURK By
VISITOR FROM THE EAST.

He Denies the stories of MassaeFss and
Declares That the Followers of tins
Prophet Are Notably ToIerant-How
MOsIe m Civilization Differs From
Ouer.
An educated Mohammedan from Con-
stantinople on visit to America point
ed the other day to a despatch in a
newspaper referring to the atrocities of
which the Turks are accused in Mace
donia.
DO you people really believe all
this?" he asked an American friend.
do you really believe that we Moham-
medans are such monsters of deprav-
ity. and that We take pleasure in wip-
ing out Christians just because they are
Christians? Such a course is totally
opposed to the spirit of Mohammedan-
isn.''
"Then," asked the American, chow do
you account for these massacres We
hear so much about?"
MANY of them never happen" was
the reply. .They are invented by the
Macedonian revolutionary committee,
the Bulgarian authorities, and other
enemies of the Ottoman Empire.
"Other massacres, as your papers
call them, are really battles. When the
Macedonian rebels are beaten in a fight,
the survivors call it a massacre"
"And what about the Armenian af-
| fairs? Surely the same remarks can't
apply there.
THE Armenians and the Kurds," said
| the Mohammedan, have always been
at deadly feud. For centuries Armen-
ians have slain Kurds and Kurds Ar
menians. Ill.,.
| TT is not matter of religion at all;
| it is matter of race, of politics, of
commerce-there are a thousand points
of difference. The Armenians have be-
come a race of cowardly hucksters and
usurers, while the Kurds have remained
a race of warriors. &c..
/ 1.-THE Kurds are paying back old
scores, and the Armenians can no
longer keep. their end up, as you would
say. That is all there is to it.
| Believe me, any slaughter of Chris
tians in Turkish dominions, or in any
other Mohammedan country, arises
from some other cause than the fact
that they are Christians. We have no
luminosity toward Christians.
They are what the Prophet called
i people of a book-ahl kitab' that is to
say, followers of "a revealed religion,
and kindly treatment of them is ex-
pressly commanded in the Koran. They
are tolerated by us, and even cherished
and assisted when they deserve it by
reason Of high character and good
i works.
Then il you are so tolerant" said
/ the Mokammedan. A great many of
the Christians in Turkey and through
out the Levant are not by any means
] nice people. If you had them here /
don't think you would like them.
/ Many are usurers who grind the
faces of the poor. The Mohammedan
/ peasant would probably offer the same
reasons for killing them that the Rus
slams offer for the Kishineff massacre
and the persecution of the Jews.
! Others are political plotters of the
most desperate, anarchistie type, who
think nothing of blowing UP mosque
full of people with dynamite, or of
poisoning the streams upon which a
Mohamedan village depends for water.
IF they simply practiced the Chris
tian religion, and were otherwise
peaceable, laW-abiding, useful subjects,
nobody would trouble them. Hundreds
of thousands of other Christians, who
have those qualities, live under Turkish
rule and have no complaint to make
about it, VI
| The Mohammedan asserted that if
the Salvation Army went through the
streets of a fanatical Mohammedan city,
beating its drums and Haunting its ban
ners, it would meet with none of the
| insults which it sometimes encounters
in the slums of western cities.
| AS soon as the Mollamemdans UNDER
stood that hits curious and novel DEM
onstration was ordained by the re-
i ligious belief of the actors, they would
treat it not merely with polite toler-
ance, but with distinct reverence. AS
a matter of fact, the Salvation Army
nople, and nobody objects.
II Is Striking TACT, Went on the
Mohamedan, that, though the Turks
and Kurds do massacre and persecute
/ Christians for reasons not connected
with religion, they never insult the
Christian faith or commit sacrilege in
Christian churches.
4 We admire many of your missionar-
les" said the Mohammedan. "Of course
we think them mistaken, but we see
that they are good men who follow
their lights. Many Mohammedans help
i them in their educational and medical
work by gifts of money, land and build
j ings.' e,r
/ Before you are judged at all by Mo-
ha1nmedans, much less condemned,
many things will there be to be in
quired of" says a European who has
| spent almost a lifetime among Moham-
medans. First, are you an Eastern?
IF you are not says the Eastern, 4
have no stande~2 at all by which to
measure you. If you are, then of what
class of caste of Eastern are you? If
you are, and you have sinned, my con-
domination extends to the exclusion of
you from bread and water" That
rule our religion, which is greater than
] either of us has made But I will buy
| with you, sell with you, and talk with
you.