Non-Muslim

“ In proportion as the lot of the conquered peoples became harder to bear, the more irresistible was the temptation to free themselves from their miseries, by the words, “There is no god but God: Muḥammad is the Apostle of God.” [79] When the state was in need of money—as was increasingly the case—the subject races were more and more burdened with taxes, so that the condition of the non-Muslims was constantly growing more unendurable, and conversions to Islam increased in the same proportion. ”

“ As regards the individual, it is admitted on all hands that Islam gives to its new Negro converts an energy, a dignity, a self-reliance, and a self-respect which is all too rarely found in their Pagan or their Christian fellow-countrymen.”154
The words above quoted were written before the partition of the greater part of Africa among the governments of Christian Europe—England, France and Germany—but the imposing character of Muslim civilisation has not ceased to impress the Negro mind, or to operate as one of the influences favourable to the conversion of the African fetish-worshippers. ”

“ British policy in the east does indeed rest on Muslim support and when he points out the relative numbers of Muslims and of Jews in the world and the number who today support Britain, he brings forward what after all must be the most serious objection, from the British point of view, to an independent Palestine. ”

“ But you never hear about these stories,” he said. “America is ours, and until we dismiss the negative notions of what it means to be a Muslim, we will still face this kind of discrimination across the country.” ”

“ Christian, formed an integral of the Arab race and as such fell within the immediate scope of the new Dispensation. When, however, these came into collision with the Muslim columns on the frontier, they were supported by their respective sovereigns,—the western by the Kaiser, and the eastern by the Chosroes. Thus the struggle widened, and Islam was brought presently face to face in mortal conflict with the two great Powers of the East and of the West. ”

“ It is to the proselytising efforts of these Arab and Indian merchants that the native Muhammadan population, which we find already in the earliest historical notices of Islam in these parts, owes its existence. Settling in the centres of commerce, they intermarried with the people of the land, and these heathen wives and the slaves of their households thus formed the nucleus of a Muslim community which its members made every effort in their power to increase. ”

“ With such a confession of faith, we need not wonder that of the two hundred and fifty million Muslims of the world, a bare five per cent was ever on the side of our opponents, that nearly the entire remainder, before the breakdown of Russia, was definitely pledged to the cause of liberty, that many were fighting side by side with our boys in France. ”

“ It is doubtless the ready admission they receive, that makes the pagan Negroes willing to enter into a religious society whose higher civilisation demands that they should give up many of their old barbarous habits and customs; at the same time the very fact that the acceptance of Islam does imply an advance in civilisation and is a very distinct step in the intellectual, moral and material progress of a Negro tribe, helps very largely to explain the success of this faith. ”

“ Brought suddenly into contact with European culture, these have received an impulse to advance in the path of civilisation, but being unable to bridge over the gulf that separates them from their foreign rulers, they find in Islam a culture corresponding to their needs and capable of understanding their requirements and aspirations.155 So far, therefore, from the extension of European domination tending to hamper the activities of Muhammadan propagandists, it has to a very remarkable degree contributed towards the progress of Islam. ”

“ Montesquieu25 has well said, “Une religion chargée de beaucoup de pratiques attache plus à elle qu’une autre qui l’est moins; on tient beaucoup aux choses dont on est continuellement occupé.” The religion of the Muslim is continually present with him and in the daily prayer manifests itself in a solemn and impressive ritual, which cannot leave either the worshipper or the spectator unaffected. Saʻīd b. Ḥasan, an Alexandrian Jew, who embraced Islam in the year 1298, speaks of the sight of the Friday prayer in a mosque as a determining factor in his own conversion. ”

“ To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.
To those...
(APPLAUSE) To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. ”

“ History of Islam in Sumatra; in the Malay Peninsula; in Java; in the Moluccas; in Borneo; in Celebes; in the Philippine and the Sulu Islands; among the Papuans. The Muslim missionaries: traders: ḥājīs 363
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
Absence of missionary organisation in Islam: zeal on the part of individuals. Who are the Muslim missionaries? Causes that have contributed to their success: the simplicity of the Muslim creed: the rationalism and ritualism of Islam. Islam not spread by the sword. The toleration of Muhammadan governments. ”

“ As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not–and never will be–at war with Islam. I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity. ”

“ Making concessions to the West, which cares only for business, money, pleasure and comfort, is not the thing to do. That way lies the destruction of Islam. How one can possibly consider himself a Moslem and at the same time approve of bringing women out of the harem, the abolition of polygamy, the separation of religion and state, and even of doing away with the caliphate, is beyond me. No, one who wishes to reform Islam according to modern ideas cannot be a Moslem, and a true Moslem does not need to be modern, for the law of Islam is all right just as it is. ”

“ Slaves are certainly impressed with the idea that such a disinclination subsists, and it is not an unfrequent answer of a slave, when asked his motives for turning Musleman, that ‘some religion he must have, and he is not allowed to turn Christian.’ Prejudices in this respect are wearing away; and less discouragement is now given to the conversion of slaves than heretofore. Masters, it is affirmed, begin to find that their slaves serve not the worse for instruction received in religious duties. ”

“ Plus de 360,000 sectateurs du coran y reconnaissent un sultan indépendant. Aux jésuites chassés de l’île, aux représentants du culte officiel, se substituent comme maîtres religieux et éducateurs de la population, les missionnaires musulmans de la Chine et de l’Inde, qui rénovent ainsi la propagande, commencée par les invasions arabes.” (A. le Chatelier (2) , p. 45.) ↑ ”

“ What in truth could they have done to change a people whose traditions have been fixed so long, whose religious passions are so intense, and whose Mohammedans, although in the minority, legitimately claim to govern the sacred city of their faith according to their code? How prevent Islam from remaining the State religion in a country where civil law and religious law are not yet plainly separated, and where faith in the Koran is the only tie by which the idea of nationality can be maintained? ”

“ The religion of Islam has more adherents than it had; its dominion is marked by three Moslem empires: Turkey, Persia, and Morocco; it is the religion of Arabia still; its followers predominate in Egypt, in Asia Minor, in Afghanistan, in the East Indies. It numbers many millions throughout Africa, India, China, Russia, and the Philippines; but nowhere, unless it be possibly in some of the most degraded districts of pagan Africa, do Moslems stand above their fellows in enlightenment, in morality, in progress. {115} Has Islam, then, failed to meet men? ”

“ The Moslems fear the idea of a common electorate, for only in the separate communal system do they see any way to preserve the Islamic culture and religion. The one rallying cry which brings the Moslems of India together in a united purpose to stand up for their rights is the slogan, "Islam is in danger!" For Islam they will lay down their lives ”

“ By preventing or removing the persecution (fitnah) , the religion of the Moslems was to be free and pure from intolerance and compulsion to revert to idolatry, or in other words, to be the only or wholly of God. That is, when you are free and unpersecuted in your religion, and not forced to worship idols and renounce Islam, then your religion will be pure and free. You shall have no fear of being forced to join other gods with God. ”

“ Truly, they have committed an act at which Islam is revolted, as well as all Moslems and all the peoples of the earth, be they Moslems, Christians, Jews, or idolators. As God lives, it is a shameful deed, the like of which has not been done by any people counting themselves as civilised. ”

“ Islam it would seem means far less to them than nationalism. To a much less degree, of course, the same may be said of the other Moslem countries. Seeing no way in which Islam can again become politically all-powerful, the Moslems of Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Arabia, for instance, are doing all in their power to establish strong national governments, to develop their own national interests, and to take their rightful place in the League of Nations. ”

“ If any one of you shall mention the name of Mohammed, the Prophet of God, may his mercy be with him!—or of the book and the religion of God, in a way in which it ought not to be mentioned; or if any one kills a Moslim, free man or slave, he is no longer entitled to this pledge of faith, which is given in the name of God, and of the Prophet, and of the Emir of the true Believers,—may God increase his honours!—and of the whole body of the Moslims, and his blood becomes lawful, like the blood of the enemies of the Islam, or their descendants. ”

“ In that country the question has been seriously debated among the doctors of the Law as to whether Moslems could really follow their religion properly because of these changes which have been forced upon them. As recently as 1920 thousands of devout Moslems were persuaded to emigrate from India to Afghanistan and other strictly Moslem lands where they could follow their religion according to the divinely revealed requirements of the Prophet. In the eyes of the orthodox, Turkey, by treating Islamic law in the way she has done, has committed the unpardonable sin. ”

“ On the whole the ritual commands and prohibitions of Islam do not bear with excessive hardness on the life of the Oriental, which in any case moves somewhat monotonously in fixed forms. Of the anxious scrupulosity with which Judaism discusses “clean” and “unclean,” “lawful” and “unlawful,” there are but few traces, even in the writings of the later theologians of Islam, not to speak of Mohammed himself, or the life of his followers until now.
Religion and the law of the State are not separated in Islam. ”

“ Even today when the current of modernism is running stronger than ever before in India, Egypt, and Turkey, the same argument holds, and all changes and modifications of the manners and customs of the Moslem people are based on the assumption that Islam is elastic, and adaptable to the demands of each age. ”

“ Then there are those who in a spirit of commendable appreciation feel that Christianity has much to learn from Islam. They feel that Islam is a kind of Unitarian religion, and that if Christians do go to Moslem lands, they should definitely go to share their experience, and learn as much as they can. They should not he primarily interested in winning converts to Christianity, hut in interpreting the values in Christianity within the framework of the Islamic system, and in trying to make Moslems better Moslems. ”

“ You shall protect those Moslims, or their allies, who arrive in your country and travel through it until they have left it. You shall send back to the country of the Islam the run-away slaves of the Moslims, who have come to you, and likewise the Moslim who is at war with the Moslims, and has demanded your protection. ”

“ The theocratic character of a Moslem State facilitates, indeed, the incorporation of different races in the same social and political system, seeing that all distinctions between men are obliterated by community in the faith of Islam. And it is impressive to see how closely the Mohammedan world, though not free from sects, is knit together by religious principle, and how strongly it cherishes the brotherhood of believers. ”

“ They all seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance – Where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die. For them, anyone can be an infidel, including fellow Muslims. ”

“ We feel urged by missionary zeal of the better kind to make the Mohammedan world partake in its enjoyment. In the Turkish Empire, in Egypt, in many Mohammedan countries under Western control, the progressive elements of Moslim society spontaneously meet us half-way. But behind them are the millions who firmly adhere to the old superstition and are supported by the canonists, those faithful guardians of what the infallible Community declared almost one thousand years ago to be the doctrine and rule of life for all centuries to come. ”