Bisbee daily review., 1915-05-06
Thursday Morning, May 6, 1915
THE FLAG OF ne PROPHET

THE FLAG OF THE PROPHET
 In Turkey. in Europe. the war is said to have strengthened and deepened religious feeling The Turk with all his faults is essentially religious, otherwise he would not have been the chief orchbearcr Of the Mos lem faith for nearly 1000 years. In the last three or four centuries his religion like his political power has been losing its grip and dlslntegratng Finding them selves however face to face, like Germany, with "a world of enemies" and urged on by the Young Turk leaders whose aspirations political rather than rious the people appear to feel once more little of re-6 er ting -pirit that animated them in the time of the crusades and in the earlier period when they were extending the empire the Turkish sword and the Prophets law to cover half the civilized world.
 Is it a real flame or only a spark in the ashes2 A little time will tell Certainly the race of Othman has deeriorated much in recent centuries sinking deep CT into mental and spiritual lethargy while the modern world arose and swept by them. The Moslems have lost their pride They have become accustomed to de feat They have seen the despised Christians lop of one after another of their possessions until India Egypt are gone. and all northern Africa Cypress and the soudon outposts in Arabia and along the Persian gulf end au of Europe but little territory back of tnople And with this shrinhage of dominion has ahrunk their conception of themselves as the favored race of AL
 
 was certain guarantee Of superiority and victory.
 It was noble and beautiful faith in its early purity in spite Of the sco that the western world has always heaped upon Looked imparally, a faith well suited followers designed curb their pas sions strengthen their weaknesses and inculcae lofty conception of the Deity It built by Mohammed up on Jewish and Christian foundations, and might almost be called compromise of those two faiths Among itA seven prophets" included Moses Abraham and "he gentle Christ" Though it has been perverted to a sol religion iustiyng and encouraging conquest even that aspect of it is not nherent-the founder hmseo lapsed a little. in his old age, from purity of his nrst teachings In its simplicity, Mohammedanism pen etrates the hearts of it's disciples, shapes their lives to good works and than Christianity has ever done encourages intellectual enlightenment No other reli- zion sanction to science and education. 'I is permitted to the Moslem to possess all sciences and followers urged "to seek knowledge, even if it to be found in China"
 But all this seems to have had little effect on the modern Turk Mohammedanism, it should DC remembet ed arose Arabia distinctyely the re- ligon the Arabs, a susceptible of an extremely high degree of culture It served stimulate the Arab intellect that in the middle ages saracen culture shamed the ignorance Of Europe But it was as a mu- tay and political that the faith its chief ef feet on the Turks They were soldiers from the be- ginning, soldiers they remained though with their old dash and ygor gone They have held their conquered provinces conquerors instead consot dating and absorbing them. They have merely held a large loose empire in unwilling subjection collected taxes from it. Armenians remained Armenians Arabs have remained Arabs, Persians have remained Persans. Even the Faith has failed to amagamate
 And es a matter of fact Che faith itself has been disrupted. Though there are not so many Mohamme den sects Christian there plenty of them schsm began shortly after the Prophets death In 632 A. D. the shiites, adherents of Ali left the sunntes, who were orthodox believers, tho denominations still exist hating each ether bitterly The shies today mum bcr about 100000 The smnites now perhaps i45, 100000 are further divided into four different schools adherents of Abu Hanifa, of Ash shais of MauS and Of Ahmed bnllaubal The last dsect has further given birth the Wahhabites group of "Proesants' yho sock to restore Islam to s original purity and sim picity It was founded in the eighteenth century b, another Mahomet The modern O nhe sects is th, Blbi founded in Persia in l8l3 by Hirza Ali Mahomet uls successor Meha-Ulah extended the movement witt
 , success ttat t came to be called Dcbolsm or Ba