The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-04

Nv, Extry! Awful murders IN
5ania, Turks kill $4,000 Chris
, N speshul extry!" ...,..
' AMI the newsboy sped down 'he
.rsst selling his papers like hot-cakes
aaonIe eager to read about the
' ~ atrocities of the ''unspeakanle
Turk from,
ronstantinople, on visit TO AliieiiC'''
sonqbt one of the papers and read tne
..,laerams and editorial comments
.,r,ling cynically the while.
.Do YOU people really beheve al
.s;.o" he asked an American frleno'
"no YOU really believe that we Mo-
,smmedans are such monsters OF de-
nravitv. and that we take pleasure IN
ming out Christians just because
thew are Christians? Such a course is
,ota1Iv opposed to the spirit Of Mo-
bammedanism.
Then" asked the American. "how
do Won account for these massaereS
We hear so much about?"
MANY of them never happen. was
the reply. They are invented by the
Macedonian Revolutionary Commit
tee the Bulgarian authorities and
otber enemies of the Ottoman Empire.
Other massacres,' as your papers call
hem are really battles. When the
Macedonian rebels are Beaten in a
fgbt. the survivors call it a massacre"
And what about the Armenian af-
fair Surely the same remarks can't
apply there"
The Armenians and the Kurds,"
said the Mohammedan apologist,
"have always been at deadly feud. For
centuries Armenians have slain Kurds,
and Kurds Armenians. 1t is not a
matter of religion at all; it is a matter
of race, of politics. of commerce
there are a thousand points of differ
ence The Armenians have become d
race Of cowardly hucksters and usl1r-
ers, while the Kurds have remained a
race of warriors. The Kurds are pay
inc back old scores, and the Arne-
mans 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
animosity toward Christians. They are
what the Prophet called people of q
book Cahl kitab)-that is to say, fo1-
lowers of revealed religion--and kind
ly treatment of them is expressly COM
handed in the Koran. They are toler-
ated by us, and even cherished and as
sisted when they deserve it by reason
of high character and good works.
Then, if you are so tolerant" said
the still skeptical American, why all
this trouble?"
There are many reasons" said the
Mohammedan. "A great many of~=the
Christians in Turkey and throughout
the Levant are not by any means nice
people If you had them here 1 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
SANS offer for the Kishineff massacre
and the persecution of the Jews. 9th
ers are political plotters of the most
desperate, anarchistic type, who think
hothng OF blowing up mosque full
OF people with dynamite, or of poison
ing the streams upon which a Moham-
medan village depends for water.
If they simply practiced the Chris
uan religion, and were otherwise
peaceabe, law-abiding, useful sub
!ects, nobody would trouble them.
hundreds of thousands of other Chris
uanS who have those qualities, live
under Turkish rule and have no COM
paint to make about it,
Ihls in brief, is the defense of the
Mohammedan. He denies strenuously
mat he is intolerant, and points to the
Idct that Jews and Christians of all
sects are permitted to live and prac-
uce their religion within his territory.
ana the better Jews and Christians
AYERS.
The Mohammedan asserts that he
extends tolerance to the practices and
a eAdctlons of any faith, be it what it
INDY His religion teaches him rever-
ehce not only for his own creed, but
aoI all revealed religions. If the Sal
,suoL Army want through the streets
VI tanatical Mohammedan city, beat
ing us drums and Haunting it's banners,
would meet with none of the insults
%%nIch 1t sometimes encounters in the
Gums OF Western cities. AS soon as
me Mohammedans understood that
nnlS curious and novel demonstration
vas ordained by the religious belief
VI me actors, they would treat it not
MseIely with polite tolerance, but with
tG1suhct reverence. AS matter of
t tSct the Salvation Army does parade
body objects
II is a striking fact, say the Moham-
T Tedah apologists, that, though the
auLks and Kurds do massacre and
PeLsecute Christians for reasons not
, Lolihiected with religion, they never
insult the Christian faith or commit
SS%acLlege in Christian churches. The
alohammedan, like all Fasteners, has
a. Wonderful tolerance for people who
o ous not think as he thinks. His stand
- Oh right and wrong is personal