Evening star., 1926-05-11
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

of Maid may. himself. be a candidate
for that power. Ry him Arabia
would become the center of Islam in
place of Turkey or Syria. The Mos
lens are tivesiXthS Of the population
of Arabia and Palestine.
The Wahhabis of Arabia and the
Senussi of Egypt are fundamentals
sects of Islam. strongly antagonistic
to the modern tendency toward ra-
tionalism or agnosticiSm, and react
ing toward adherence to the original
teachings of the Prophet.
On the contrary. Mustapha kemal.
President of Turkey. and King F'uad
OF Egypt are modern ''progressives.
They are undertaking to encourage
contacts with the Europeans, by new
railroads. automobiles and air lines
from Egypt through Palestine and
| Turkey to India. Modern education.
however radical, is being stimulated
both in Turkey and Egypt--even the
doctrines of Karl Marx are being sub
stituted for orthodox doctrines.
whether Atoslem or Christian. Eu-
ropean dress and customs for both
men and women are made compul-
sorry by law. Old things are pass
ing; all things become new. Now
Ibn Sa'ud Maid, the Arab, is at
tempting to stem the tide by calling
the faithful to return to the faith
of the fathers.
Ibn Sa'ud Maid is said TO be the
strongest man in Arabia. He has
been leader of the Wahhabis for u
years or longer The Wahhabis are
warlike in tendencies and doctrine
and extremely fanatical in their Mo-
hammedanism--So strict that they
look upon all other Moslems as
tainted with polytheism because
others pray not only to Ali, but to
"other great saints and patriarchs."
They especially hate the Meccans-
those who make pilgrimages to
Mecca. They despise the people of
Hejas, yet, recently. when Ibn Sa' I'D
and his army held the capital of
Hejas ut his mercy, he did not COM
plete the conquest. Since 1912 lbn
Sa'ud has been replacing tribal rival
!, ries with a common brotherhood
the Ikhwan. He has barred mission
aries and all other foreigners out of
Maid.
The activities of Ibn Sa'ud are said
to have their roots in the World War
and the secret treaty under which
French army assisted Gen. Allenby
with his British conquest of Palestine
and Syria. The Arabs co-operated
against the Turks, with the under
standing that they and the Syrians
were to be independent of Turkey, if
, successful. They knew nothing of
the secret treaty under which the
French later took possession of Syria
and the English of Palestine. The
present effort of Ibn Sa'ud to organize
the Moslems and revive the caliphate
appears to some observers as a direct
menace to both the British and the
French in their Near East pro-
tectOrateS.
In the Winter following the World
War armistice the Bolshevik govern
ment began to stir up the Moslems
against the allies by founding in
Syria and Arabia a League for the
Liberation of Islam," through which
league they undertook to form Soviet
republics in Azerbaijan, in Kazan and
other small states Of Persia, There
both Russians and British held oil
interests, though the Russian invest.
ments were all made with capital bor-
rowed from the British. In order to
induce the Moslems to favor the
Soviet republics, the Russians gave
them all their oil holdings-at the
expense of the British money they
had borrowed A year later the
Moslems held conference in Berlin,
where they obtained arms with which
to invade Persia. The whole situa-
ton, as will be recognized, is thus
complicated with European intrigue.
It goes beyond mere differences in
Moslem sectarian rivalries.
Copyright, 1925. by PauAv. Collins.)