The Holbrook news., 1912-03-22

YER since Italy made her sud
 den advance on the last Mus
 sulman possession in North Af
 rica, European Christendom has
 been wondering with no little apprehension, and some conscious guilt, whether the act may not evoke a great sympathetic outburst on the part of the Islamic peoples, number hng some two hundred millions, and Including legions of the .fiercest fight ling men in the world. Such a notion however, is the merest nightmare For nothing Is less possible than a union of the Moslem for an attack upon the rest of the world or any part of it. The Islamic danger, of which I am not denying the existence in certain forms, Is practically con- fined to Africa, and. between modern Islamic sentiment in Asia and Africa there is a great gulf fixed.
 In Asia the inspiration of twentieth century Islam Is a desire for cultural progress. Among the Mohammedans of Asia, whether in Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan or India and even in Arabia, a general consensus of the best and most enlightened opinion holds that the future power. infiu- ence and continued existence of Is- Jamie races depends upon their as- similation Of western learning, science and even social systems.
 But in Africa Islam exists on a much lower mental level. and, while still inspired by the fires of aggres- siVe fanaticism. nevertheless lacks, as yet, the cohesion necessary to make it really formidable. But 1t has never lost it's sanguinary possibilities or dis carded its hope of supremacy by the sword. This lively militant faith, in which we may discern an Islamic per il, is enshr1ned in a number of secret Bects or confraternities. These at present are for the most part bitterly at variance with one another, and in- capable of common action even against the Christian. Should, how ever, one of these confraternities sue ceed in obtaining a dominant power and influence, a general attack upon white interests from the Mediterra- mean to the Zambesi might become a much more serious possibility.
 It is in this contingency that an Islamic peril lies, and It's menace is essentially African. As yet this union of sects under one leadership, with one cooperative impetus, has not been achieved, but it Is even now threatening, and there is sufficient ev1- dence that there are those who are working with secret but undaunted persistence for the eventful triumph of Islam in the Dark Continent In fact, so extraordinary has been the success of the Senussi Brotherhood that all the signs would seem to point Go the ultimate adhesion of the mil Hons of native Africa to this great militant organization It's keynote is uncompromising resistance to Euro pean aggression, and a revival of the earlier fighting spirit of Islam.
 A disposition Is evinced by occa- lsionaI writers who are not conversant with it's persistent propaganda to be- little the Senussi power and influence. But it is otherwise with those who have passed many years in close touch with the peoples of North and Gen. tral Africa. and with the pulsations of unrest which are forever passing up and down through the veins and ar teries of the Dark Continent. Many | an officer of British and French colo nial levies has encountered the signs | and tokens of systematic organiza- ton which 1t would be foolish to ig- | nore. It is from these men that the | following particulars come, and their story is an interesting one.
 About six hundred miles south of | the Mediterranean and 500 miles west | of the Nile, encompassed by bowling wastes of desert, in which the wells are sixty and seventy miles apart, lies the Saharan stronghold of the Senussi, the town of Joffo, in the oasis of Ku- fra. Here is the headquarters of that able and mysterious parsonage re- ferred to as Senussi, who is regard ed by the myriads of his devoted follow ing as the true mahdi, and in this place, they are told, he is watching, planning, and preparing for the great day when the green standard shall be unfurled over Africa and the dark race shall rise and fight for the land of their inheritance.
 An officer in Nigeria was recently told by a native sergeant that he be- Ionged to the Senussi Brotherhood Asked what 1t all meant, he replied quite frankly, When all Is ready we shall drive all the white people out of the land. But the time is not yet" From this man the officer ascertained