BRITAIN AND ISLAM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 16

BRITAIN AND ISLAM.

We desire , (says the Spectator) .to express our agreement with a weighty and well-reasoned leading article m tho Times dealing with the deputation representing the Mohammedan community throughout India which is to wait on the Viceroy on Monday next. We trust that Xiord Minto will make it clear to the deputation how entirely the British Government has the interests of its Mohammedan subjects at heart and how strongly determined it is to hold tho balance evenly between the various sections of the Indian population and not to allow an unfair dominance to any one race or creed. The dangerous and disingenioue policy adopted by tho Sultan of Turkey in his relatians with Egypt has made it necessary for us to take a firm stand against a Sovereign whom ( Mohammedans throughout th© world regard with reverence on religious grounds. But this opposition to tho Sultan on tho part of the British Government docs not involve, and was never meant to involve, the slightest hostility to Islam in any part of the world. It is therefore of the first importance to make it clear that not only are we not hostile as a nation to the Mohammedan crecci, but that, on the contrary, we, as the greatest of Mohammedan Powers, hold it a duty to respect the rights of Islam, and to confirm those rights wherever they are legitimately exercised. Happily, Britain crfn point to an aDsolutely clean record in regard to her tretament of Mohammedans, uot only in. India, but in Egypt and in every otjher part of the world where Englishmen have come in contact with Islam. We have never, interfered with tho Mohammedan religion or oppressed its votaric3. The Indian Mohammedans arc, wo believe, thoroughly loyal to our rule and appreciate our good faith. We would ask them, however, to remember that all Mohammedans do not display tho high qualities shown by themselves, and to note that when we have been in conflict with the Sultan it has never been on religious grounds. Though in the future, as in the past, we shall not shrink from maintaining our rights to the fullest extent and in the firmest manner against Turkey, the Turkish Sovereign will never be opposed by us,as a Mohammedan, but, if at all, solely us a ruler who has unwisely chosen to declare himself tho active enemy of the British people. Tho faith of Islam will never suffer from contact with our Empire.