MECCA MAY FALL

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 220, 16 September 1924, Page 5

MECCA MAY FALL

WAHABIS AT THE GATES. A RELIGIOUS DISTURBANCE. CAIRO, September 15. The Wahabis have readied tho environs of Mecca, aud the fall of that city is imminent. The Egyptian Government has o_dered the transitr of its moneys to Jedda, the Arabian seaport, (iO miles to tlie west of Mecca. — i,A. and N.Z. -table.) The Wahabis are a Mohammedan sect founded in the middle of the eighteenth century by Mahomed Abdul \V ahaO in Nejd, AraDia. He proclaimed anew the sovereign validity oi the original Koran, denounced traditional observances, saint worship and pilgrimages (excepting to the Kaaba at -Mecca), condemned luxury in dress and living, and proiiibited the use of tobacco and alcohol in any form. This youth (he was about 23 years of age)f was hounded from place to place, j and found sanctuary with the Arab i Sheik Mohammed Ibn Su'ud. A puritan crusade took place, which was crowned with the conquest of Medina (for even in those days the prescribed way for making people holy was to cut their throats). A militant church was established, which fought the nonconformist and tlie infidel alike. The cutting of throats and the other forms of conversion was carried on for 30 years, and in 1818 Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt crushed the temporal power of these muscular religionists in Arabia. In IS3I Wahabis iv India were smitten hip and thigh by the Sikhs. These turbulent regenerators are found in Arabia, Upper and Lower Egypt, and in Turkey.