The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-03-23
CROSS AND CRESCENT.

The adherents of two distinct and antag
onistic religions cannot live on amicable
terms in the same territory. The crescent
and the cross never have been blended in
a common cause. The Turk and the Ar
menian-Mohammeda and Christian-will
never stop their feud of blood until one or
the other is removed from the territory.
The faiths and beliefs and religions of the
two will no more mix than will oil and
water One or the other must predominant,
and Proclamation. means oppression of the
weaker, with it's attendant outrages murder
and massacres. Human nature has changed
but little since the religious fervor of the
world inspired prince and peasant alike to
fight to recover the holy land and the holy
sepulchre from the profaning hands of the
Mohammedans.
News stories of recent date from Adana,
Asia Minor, are not only proof of the prin-
ciples laid down, but more convincingly
prove that the advancing centuries have
embittered rather than softened the hatreds
of the followers of the Mecca camel driver
against those of the Nazarene carpenter.
The Turk today, in face of the possible de-
spoilation of his temporal power as the
head of the religion upon which his govern
ment is founded, is as relentless in his
slaughter of the Christians as he was four
teen centuries ago when the Kingdom of AL
lab was being established by the sword.
Conquered by the overmastering forces of
civilization, his country on the chopping
block of the world, his spiritual head of
the church threatened with expulsion from
Europe, he shoots down the christian Ar
menians as though they were dogs. He
does this because centuries of blind and
fanatical adherence to his faith has so
nodded his character that he believes the
destruction of the Christian is pleasing in
the sight of Allah, and that in the future
existence he will be rewarded accordingly
as he has pushed the kingdom of the faith
full on earth by destroying those who OPP
pose its precepts.
1t is easy to understand why France and
Great Britain can take no coercive and re-
straining action in Turkey. India, the
great British dominion beyond the seas, is
Mohammedan. So is Egypt, the recently
acquired dominion. Both are restless under
British rule. Both would throw off the
authority of the dominant government if it
could. France has large and valuable Afri-
can possessions which are inhabited by
Mohammedans, and religious animosities
are as great as those under British rule.
These are the conditions which confront the
disposition of the temporal powers of the
Sultan of Turkey.
The Armenians, with their traditions of
being the oldest Christian people in the
world, refuse to yield their faith to the de-
mands of hated false religion. They pre-
fer martyrdom to PROSECUTING. They live
among the religionists whose faith is the
fundamental principle of the government.
The uprisings against them may not be
chargeable directly to the Turkish govern
ment, but there is little inclination on the
part of that government to punish those
who uphold the faith by the bullet. The
removal of the Turk from Europe will not
solve the question. Neither will it make
the Armenans secure. Fanaticism, espe-
cially religious fanticism, cannot be terml-
mated by changing its location. So long as
the Armenians are forced to dwell in the
same land with Mohammedans there will
be religious strife between them. There is
no religious melting pot. If Constantinople
were denationalized Mohammedanism would
not be dereligionized If mandatory for
| Armenia is adopted the mandatory govern
ment will have to use police force suff-
cient to suppress the development of relig-
ious temper in every village and hamlet
The difficulty of suppressing race wars
to say nothing of the impossibility of elimi-
mating them, in this country indicates the
difficulty of such an undertaking. The tall
of driving the Turk from Europe as a solu-
ton of the Armenian question is beside
the mark.