MECCA

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 4

MECCA

WHAT IT- MEANS TO THE

MOHAMMEDAN.

Mr. Oscar Asohe proposed to name his new musical play "Mecca." This caused considerable controversy in. London, and the intervention of the Lord Chamberlain:

In tho London Daily Mail tho Nawabzada Nuarat Ali Mirza of Murehidabad writes as follows on the subject:

So "Mecca," the nam« of our Holy. City, is not to form tho title of » musical comedy! A ridioulous fuss, I hear many jEnftlishiuen say, and several havo asserted* that had th« title been used there would not have.been a word of protest..

I am sure there. would not. Mohammedans do not, as a rule, protest. One of the greatest danger*—for England—is the silence of Islam. Mohammedans are proud, sensitive,.. and they are fatalists. They accept courtesy in silenoo-7-it does not say that they do not appreciate it—and they. aocef>t a slight in pilenoß. It is hard for Englishmen to realise how bitter and dangerous such a silence may be! When I first came to England at/the ago of eight I was a j*ejudiced little person. The windows of my souMooked only upon two great ideals—obsessions, If you like. One was faith in my own oreed, and the other was loyaliy to the groat QiieenEmpresß, to whom my father'had sworn allegiance, and who held the scales' of justioe equal between Christian and Moham='] medan, Hindu and Parsee. The- great English Oovernmont gave protection to all creeds. How one prayed mattered not, provided there were no seditious prayers. .How one thought was no bar to being a gentleman.

Little Mohammedans lire taught to respeot Christianity. It is pint of our faitii to revere and learn and try to follow, all the teaching of Christ. No true Mohammedan would dare h> point a finger of scorn at any of His precepte. Mohamniedans may sometimes rovile Christianity. But there is a difference in Christianity as it ia practised and Cliriet's own teaching.

How chocked was I, then, when, the day after I landed, I went to tea with some little English girls, »nd ia the course of a. dolls' ten, party I was given him''sandwiches ! Pig !, ,v; Thoeo • pretty little fairhaired girls had offered me pig! Surely they knovy it was a. direct insult! Sjhirely .they realised that I could not sit at the same table with them arid see them eat pig-! How angry the great Queen would bo if eke knew how her loyaj: subjects were insulted ! .

But I mado no sign", of* course. I am sure an impassive face gave no indication of the tumult in my heart. And subeequonfc j'ears at school and 'varsity taught. me toleration even for bacon and roast pork, vi,

Bui; how much would, it mean to Britain's influence in bet great Mohammedan Empire if Englishman understood how we others feel! A British Cabinet Miruster a few years .agd mode a\ typical .Btaterriont. "My _ ignorance of India is colossal," ho eaid airily,. And so Say ninety out of a hundred Englishmen. In the old days, when the great Queen's pOwer waG wielded by the India Office— men who know at least-something of their job—there were fewer grounds for offence. But Government now is an affair Of peo-. I plea. Mohammedans, and Englishmen intermix both in peace and—let it net bo forgotten—war. ' Yet such intercourse eeerns to teach the Englishman nothing. .Hia ignorance is ever colossal!

Bub will Islam remain silent for ever? I doubt it.