Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-09-05
after NEGRO SHRINERS
Hiqh Priest of Mecca Would Put Elm
In Right Light,
HE'S CLOSE TO The GREAT PROPHET

Abdul Hamid Offers Real Thing in
Mohammedan Masonry.-Master Of
Koran Gets Mixed and Miffed When
Asked to Answer Pointed Questions.
New York World, Friday.
He wrote to The World, saying:
'I, Abdul Hamid Sueiman, Of the
City of Khartum, Sudan, Egypt, a
Mohammedan by birth, Master of the
Koran, having pilgrimaged to Mecca
three times and thus become an
Eminent High Priest and head of
all Masonic degrees in Mecca, Arabia,
from, the first to the ninety-siXth
degree, am now in the United States
for the purpose of establishing the rite
of the Ancient Arabic Order of the
Mobiles Of the Mystic Shrine.
81, Abdul Hamid Suleiman, make this
been a negro Shriner in the United
States that was not bogus and infring-
ing upon the white mans rites until
now that have given n Shriner's pat
ent to Caesar r. Blake of North Caro-
lima.
~ am here to answer all questions
relative to these degrees until / re-
turn home to Mecca to enroll the
names of the true Shriners Of this
country"
Reporter on Pilgrimage.
| Accordingly, n reporter for The
World made a pilgrimage to Sulei-
mans address, No. 143 West 130th
Street. He found the blackest OF
Ethiopians sitting on the top step Of
the stoop, tanning himself gravely.
Does Abdnl Hamid Suieiman live
here?" the reporter asked.
81 am the man" was the answer to
the first of four hours Of questions
Come upstairs"
Suleiman is arranging to receive the
hundreds of thousands of American
negroes who call themselves Free
Masons and Mystic Shriners into a
Mohammedian Masonry, now that
they are being enjoined by the white
Free Masons and Shriners through the
civil courts from using the copyrighted
society names, titles, regalia and in
sigma of the American organizations.
Suleiman says the white men are
right in enjoining the negroes becapse
the negroes have had no authentic
Masonic charter-they have merely set
themselves up as Free Masons. He
proposes now to make them authentic
by virtue Of his authority as Eminent
High Priest to grant a charter in q
Masonry which he declares to be an
cient and widespread throughout the
Mohammedan world.
Must Take Oath and Pay.
He will do this only If the negroes
swear the death penalty oath, "by the
beard Of the prophet" that they will
live according to the moral code or
the Koran and that they will pay to
Mecca, through none but Suleiman, a
proportion Of their lodge dues which is
now being negotiated.
A Mohammedan charter is already
in possession Of Caesar r. Blake Of
Charlotte, N. c., Imperial Potentate
of society of negroes which has been
going by the name of A. z. A. Order
Of Mystic Shriners. 1t will become et-
fective, Suleinlan says, as soon as the
negotiations are concluded to his satis-
faction and his priestly seal is affixed
to 1t.
Suleiman exhibited his correspond
ence with Imperial Potentate Blake and
it showed without doubt that the ne
gotiations are under way. Other
doubts enter however-with a great
sweep-when Suleiman's answers dur
ing four hours of questioning concern
ing his Nohammedan Masonry, his
credentials, the Koran and the institu-
] tions of Arabia are compared with one
! smother and checked up with the en-
d cyclopedia and the experience of
American Missionaries and American
cOnsuls who have spent years in Ara
bia and other Mohammedan countries
High Priest Embarrassed.
First of all, Suleiman exhibited his
Mohammedan fez to the repol ter. 1t
is the one he was wearing when pho
tographed.
THAT is the fez I wore for fifteen
years as high priest in Mecca" said
Suleiman.
'Bu. why is the word Mecca embroid-
cred in English letters?" the reporter
asked, "if it was made to be worn in
Arabia at Mecca-where no unbeliever
is allowed-instead of being embroid-
cred in Arabic characters, as in the
Koran which you just showed me?"
Suleman gulped a few times.
Mecca is an Arabic word" he said,
and hurried away from the subject.
Later the feZ was identified posi-
lively from the photograph by the
we'll known Cwhite) Shriner, John A.
Morrison, as n regular fez OF the New
York (Mecca) Shrine Of the legitimate
white Shrners.
"He probably went downtown and
bought it," said Mr.. Morrison.
He exhibited his patent as High
prieSt