Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-04

! tabs" or village schools attached to
| the mosques, where nothing but the
Koran was formerly taught But the
same families which send their sons
and daughters to a foreign school to
get a business education viii resist with
might and main the Introduction of in
| fidel science into the great religious
institution of El-Azhar That univer-
sity is at once the strongest citadel of
the faith, and the place where that
faith is being slowly but surely stran-
gled to DEATH
There is Mohammedan journal pub
lished in Russia which is devoted to
reforming Islam and bringing the faith
of the prophet into touch with the adj
vancing world The movement has re-
ceived no encoura cement except from
Europeanized Moslems who have been
trained In religious thought on the
boulevards of Paris, who are agnostics
at heart, and whose only regard for
Islam is political and not devotional
The late Moustafa Kamel Pasha, lead
err of the patriotic Nationalist party in
Egypt, was a devout Moslem, who
earnestly desired to reform his faith
and to free 1t from the shackles Of
thirteen centuries of priestly tradi-
ton, which has quite covered over the
original doctrines and teachings Of
Mohammed. Once In a while a man
will arise in the faculty of El-Azhar
who strives to adjust the inelastic code
of the seventh century to the rapid
progress and constant change of the
twentieth. But the body of Islam is
conservative and ignorant. 1t will not
be moved.
1t has been proved in various portions
of the world that the Mohammedan re-
ligion cannot adopt Occidental civiliza-
ton and survive. To EuropeaniZe a
Moslem means to rob him of all faith.
That is a serious thing to do, for while
one agnostic may be an exemplary man,
people without a sheet anchor of faith
is certain to sink. So few Moslems
have been converted to Christianity
that the record is not worth repeating.
In Turkey, in Syria, in Egypt, in India,
in Central Africa, wherever mission
aries of the Cross have gone they have
made many converts, but not from Is
lam. The Mohammedan is a monothe-
list and he believes in one God. The
Trinitarian theory of orthodox Chris
tianity offends his monotheistic sense.
II Christian civilization shakes his faith
in Islam 1t leaves him without any be-
lief whatever. What the second and
third generations will be or will do re-
mains for time to show.
Many of the more enlightened and de-
vout Moslems lament the decay of their
faith, but admit that they are power
less to arrest 1t. They know that the
inhexible code of religion, sociaf ethics
and civil law prepared to meet condi-
lions existing in Arabia thirteen hum
bred years ago cannot be adjusted to
present conditions. They know that
the faith is inelastic; that the holy
men have taught for uncounted genera
tons that the whole law must be
obeyed; that the traditions must be
obeyed, and that none but God can
change the rules in the slightest de-
gree. They know that they cannot
change the law without pulling down
the whole structure. They know that
they cannot square the circle. They
realize that the crescent of the true
faith is being dimmed In the armament
by the still rising sun of an advancing
civilization, nurtured by religion
which Is elastic and which is ever
changing to meet new conditions. They
do not believe in the Christian faith,
but they are powerless to answer the
defiance of the modern soldier of the
cross when he cries "In hoe signo vim
ces."
Furthermore. the civilization of the
twentieth century will not brook the
degradation of women, which is con-
comitant of the Mohammedan religion.
The prophet himself said, paradise Is
under the feet of mothers" thereby
recognizing the influence of women as
the greatest in the world. The prophet
also taught that women have future
life and a soul but in his own life he
was so impure and his picture of
heaven was so bestially sensual that
the good parts of his teachings have
been forgot and the bad alone remem-
bered. He permitted plurality Of
wives, setting the limit at four, but he
also permitted concubinage without
limit, numerical or moral. The women
of Islam are degraded Into slaves.
They must veil their faces and submit
to their masters In all things.
Fifty years ago there was but one
woman in Egypt who could read and
write Now there are tens of thou
sands of girls In the schools. Even the
educated women do not desire emanci-
patton from the harem. They are sor-
nv for the European or American
woman whose husband cares SO little
for her that he will permit all men to
look upon her face. But at the same
time this conservative woman Is not
insensible to the advantages of edu-
cation, and she has found out that
actual cruelty to wives is contrary to
the teachings and practice of Chris
tians. These girls being educated now
will be the mothers of future gener-
alton of Egyptian Moslems. 1t is hard
ly to be believed that they will confirm
their sons in the ancient faith with
the old-time nervousness and piety.
Islam is being attacked by the public
school system. 1t will exist for centu-
ries perhaps. but it is already In the
decline and never again will its sword
cause the world to tremble with fear.
copyright, 1909, by Frederic J. Haskin)
Tomorrow-Twentieth Century Egypt.
VI The Ancient Church of the Copts.