A Raid On Mecca.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18195, 4 October 1924, Page 12

A Raid On Mecca.

The plight of Mecca, the Holy City of Islam, which is threatened by ail unexpected invasion of AVahabis, reminds us that there are still countries in tho world where a. religious war is a sharp possibility. The orthodox Mohammedan hates the Wahabi just as wholeheartedly as ho does the Christian, find we may be sure that the Waha.bis are getting no assistance as they advance. That they should ever have got within sight of the sacred city is surprising, and is to be explained only by the fa,et that their attack was unexpected. Our cables this week stated plainly that the capture of Mecca was their objective, and their campaign is evidently being carried out with the ferocity that religious fanaticism always engenders. The Wahabis, we are told, "swoop " down without warning, take no " prisoners and respect no sex, and " leave a trail of desolation behind." This is not their first attempt to take Mecca, though they have not been troublesome for very many years. The sect was founded in the early part of the eighteenth century by one Mahomed, and its members were called Wahabis after his father AbdulWahab to distinguish them from the followers of the Prophet. There is a very real difference between the two. The true Mohammedan is bound in all the details of his beliefs and practices by dogma, but the Wahabis believe that anyone who can read the Ivorar. and the sacred Hadis (traditions) can judge for himself in matters of doctrine. And since intolerance of any other doctrine but its own is the very soul of Mohammedanism it is not surprising that the Faithful and tlif Wahabi cannot live in peace together. The Wahabis, also, axe opposed to religious pilgrimages, which to the Mohammedan are at once the achievement and the mark of the holy. Tin' 3 difference of belief was the cause of the downfall of the Wahabis in 1803, when they were actually in possession of the holy places of Mecca ani Medina. They desecrated the Prophet's tomb in Medina and looted its treasures, and so brought down on themselves the vengeance of the whole of Islam. With the help of the Sultan of Turkey they were driven out of both cities, their leader being captured and taken to Constantinople, where hs was beheaded in 1814. Their defeat on that occasion was so -decisive that until the other day they had given no trouble for a hundred vears.

Britain is curiously concerned in the present position. During the war, in return for the help of the Emir Hussein in her Palestine campaign, she promised to guarantee the autonomy of his territory, the Hejaz, which the Turks had misruled with their usual ability. To enable Hussein to maintain his independence and provide for the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca she pays him a subsidy. A few years ago Wahabite emissaries in Mesopotamia began to show unwelcome activity, and a subsidy was granted to the Emir of Nejd, the modern representative of the old Wahabite Empire. The Treaty with Turkey recognised the Hcjuz as an independent State, and Britaiu thus discharged her promise. There is therefore no obligation on her to come to the rescue of King Hussein, as ho has asked her to do, unless the safety of Moslem subjects of the Empire is endangered. But we may be certain that her influence will be exercised in the peace negotiations which are reported to have been opened.