MENACE OF ISLAM

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10490, 15 October 1926, Page 5

MENACE OF ISLAM

IMPORTANCE OF MISSION WORK IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. INCREASED ACTIVITIES URGED BY PRIMATE. (Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND, Oc.t. 14. A strong appeal to the Church in New Zealand to increase its activities in the various mission fields rf the world was made bv Archbishop Averill in St. Mary’s Cathedral last evening in his charge to Synod. He said the w 7 orld call of the Missionary Council which appealed for £250,000, and 736 additional workers for the chief mission fields, was one of the greatest challenges the Church had ever received. It seemed to him the call from the Moslem world was most vital of all, inasmuch as Mohammedanism was the one challenge of Christianity. Professing superior faith and more recent revelation from God, it was also the one religion gaining on Christianity m many parts of the ivorlS.

After tracing the rise of Mohammedanism from the seventh and eighth centuries, the Primate referred to the strength of Islam to-day. A study of the map of the Moslem world to-day was somexvhat startling, for it held sway over 234,990,900 people and covered a large part •ot the world’s surface. No fewer than 90,090,000 Moslems lived under British rule. 70,003,000 out of Avhom were m India. A great part of Africa yvas in the grip of Islam, and the question arose Avhether the great Continent would he Avon by Christ or Mohammed. Unless the Church outposts were strengthened ten-fold they never could hope to stem the Islamic 7 invasion. The impact of West upon East is bringing about Avhat can only be regarded as a revolution in Islamic outlook.

The Archbishop said: ‘‘Although the majority of Mohammedans are still as hostile and as opposed to progress as ever they were, and, although the death sentence for apostasy has never been repealed, yet there is a very decided minority who have openly rebelled against the restrictions of the Koran and are feeling their way to light and progress. The war undoubtedly revealed a considerable clevage in the solidarity of the Moslem position, and helped to force to the front the growing feeling of nationality which is now becoming a feature in Mohammedan countries. “The subsequent action of Turkey in deposing the Sultan and establishing a republic,” bo continued, “was the outcome of the growing spirit of nationalism and self-determination, which has been such a prominent feature in the world since the war. The political and religious significance of Turkey’s actions since the -war. cannot be over-estimated, for they mean that Turkey, so long the pvferlord of Mohammedanism, has broken away from tlie rest rictions and authority of the Korin, and is looking elsewhere for guidance in the building up of a new nationalism. This means a severe blow to Moslem unity and strength, however, in spite of many new sums and of the fact that many of the followers of Kemal were substituting rabid and Harrow nationalism for an equal': unprogressive re-Ijo-ion, Turkev -and its Moslems showed no kindlier feeling toward Christianity than in the past,”