The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-11-17
HOW TURKEY TREATS
HER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS

MuSeclmdu official uT travel .r Who asks
FOR g. Ana tha wore Official is %
very elastic term zoo Turkey; 81 m-
cludes the soldiers, it Includes the poo
lice, who are among the greatest
scouudrels on the face Of the earth, u
includes officials OF any sort. iuspcg-
tors ana the Ike. They choose the best
houses in the town or village demand
the best rooms, and when night comes
they order the men out of the house
and have the women at their mercy.
/ This rule Is uuiversal you find it in the
. consular reports during the Armenian
horrors of 1894 and ., the special corr
respondent of the London Times de-
clared that after careful Investigation
in a large district i'm Armenia which
he named. he found that there was not
one Christian woman i'm the whole dis
trict who had not been dishonored be-
! fore she was married, That is the con-
dition of the helpless Christian subjects
of the sultan throughout the whole OF
the Turkish Empire.
Taking all taxes together the amount
Of taxation chat the Christians pay is,
according to the British consular re-
ports, g. per cent of their income, leay-
ing them SO per cent to live on. And
i'm addition TO this they have to pay
brides.
We sometimes hea' people speak OF
the liberation of the Turkish govern
ment But what does this liberation
mean? 1t is a crime for Musselman-
a crime punished invariably with death
to become a Christian and IL is a
capital crime for the Christian who
converts him. 1t is a crime also FOR
Christian to try to dissuade a fellow
Christian from becoming a Musselmau.
The Christian subjects Of the Sultan
are not allowed to build any new places
of worship; they are allowed, after pay
ing brides, to repair the old places
which they had when the Sultan took
possession Of the country. They mast
not have bells to their places of wOr-
ship, and they must not sing loud
enough to offend the ears of the Mus
selman who may be passing by.
Bear in mind another thing The
Turkish government is unique in this
respect, that it is strict theocraCy,
the strictest the world has ever known:
the Mosaic dspensation is not to be
compared with it. The Koran is be-
lieved to be an uncreated book, to have
existed from all eternity on gldad
tablets before the Throne Of God. The
angel Gabriel went down to the third
heavens and in the course of twenty
years dictated the words of the Koran
IL
no law of Turkey that bears on the re-
lation of the Christian and the Mussel-
man can ever be changed. l am not
speaking of an OVer-CiViliZed country
but of country with the immutable
creed of a strict theocracy. The Sui
tan himself would be liable to deposit
ton by dogmatic decree from the mead
of the religion Of Turkey if he We're to
yield a single iota to the demands of
{ Christendom, unless he is forced, in
ameliorating the condition of his Chris
| tian subjects Let me try to explain
to you how this comes to be. Moham-
/ med and Caliphs who followed him
!, were at once temporal and religious
= rulers. This continued while the Cali
r phate lasted. But the Caliphate ceased
to exist about four hundred years ago,
because by an immutable decree of
= Mohammedanism the Caliph must be
t an Arab, belonging 10 the tribe of Mo-
J manned, the tribe of korish. The Sui
. tan is not; he is a Turk, and not only
} is he not a member of the specified
l tribe, but he is not an Arab at ALL and
o., therefore he is not the head of the Mo-
f hammedan religion. The head OF the
q Mohammedan religion in Turkey is
called the Sheikhul Islam, and the re-
= suit is that no political act of the Sui
= tan has the slightest validity until ii
2 gets the assent of the Sheillhul Islam.
I See how this works. Read the treaty
of Paris, the treaty of Berlin, the con-
Vention between England and the Sui
, tan about Asia Minor and Cyprus, and
n you will find that the Sultan under
+ pressure has published magnificent re-
5 forms, promised equality of rights 10
) Christian and Musselman alike. But
+ what the Christian nations of the world
= forget is, that though the Sultan when
q hard pressed Will make any sort of pro-
Q mise he cannot fulfill any promise til
. it has had the sanction of the Sheikhu
e Islam. Now, neither the treaty of Par
r is, nor the treaty of Berlin nor the An
Il glo-Turkish convention has ever haC
i the sanction of the Sheikhul Islam
a and so far as the Turk Is concerned
8 they do not exist. Therefore if the
n Christian powers want the Sultan tC
e carry out these reforms they mus
n coerce him. Again the same law VIII CT
h forbids the Sultan to yield an incl
|. without coercion, oblige him to yielC
8 without fighting If he finds himself un.
r der pressure of a Power superior t
s himself. The Sultan can neither declare
;; war nor accept a declaration of wal
4 from any Power until he has got the
e sanction of the Sheikhul Islam. Lee
y me give you an Illustration OF what
: mean. When the Emperor of Russia
= declared war upon the Sultan in 1877
e the Sultan could not accept that dec
d laratlon until he had permission from
Y the Sheikhul Islam; anu the permission
* was given in these words: THAT II thu
J.. Sultan has a force wherewith to NEE
e VIGOROUSLY the forces OF the Emperor
! of Russia, he can accept the declara
e ton of war. but not otherwise" And
y Midhat Pacha, who was Grad Visier
[ nd NIB aNf IL. ~. III.
a in London, declared in an article II
e THE Nineteenth Century" that IL thu
It Sultan had not firmly believed tina
: England would have sent her feet 4
" support him the Sheikhul Islam woulC
n never have sanctioned his acceptance o
d Russia's declaration or war Let any
n Power tell the Sultan that II ne doe!
h not carry out any reform which he hal
IT promised fleet will be sent to seizl
o a part of mis- territory, ana ne will
J. yield without firing a gun. We have al
v Illustration OF this In 1881 By tn,