ISLAMIC WORLD UNREST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17853, 6 August 1921, Page 2 (Supplement)

ISLAMIC WORLD UNREST.

NEW RACIAL ASPIRATIONS

VITAL SENNUSSI INFLUENCE.

The whole vast world of Islam is today in profound unrest. From Morocco to China and from Turkestan to the Congo! the 250,000,000 followers of the Prophet! p Mohammed are stirring to new ideas, new I impulses, new aspirations. A gigantic! transformation is taking place whose re-J suits must affect profoundly all mankind, j This transformation, writes Lothrop Stoddard in Scribner's Magazine, was | greatly stimulated by the late war. But ; it began long before. More than 100 years ! ago the seeds were sown, and ever since: then it has been evolving; at first slowly i an.l obscurely, later more rapidly and per-i ceptibly, nntii to-day. under the stimulus ] of Armageddon, it has burst into sudden! and startling bloom. Instinctive solidarity is the foundation : of Pan-Islamism. Threatened by Western ' pressure, the Moslem world "has been ' fashioning new weapons for its defence. The most remarkable of these are the new-type religions fraternities, best exemplified by the Sennussiya. The story of the Sennussiya is one of the mot-t pic- i tnresque in modern annals. Its rise and progress well illustrate the great vitality! of Pan-Islamism. ' The Sennussi Order. With nearly 80 years of successful i activity behind it, the Sennussi order is! to-r.ay one of the vital factors in Islam. I It counts its adherents in every quarter of j the Moslem world. In Arabia its follow- , ers are very numerous, and it profoundly | influences the spiritual life of the holy j cities, Mecca and Medina. North Africa, however, sfill remains the focus of Pen- ! nussism. The whole of North Africa, ; from Morocco to Somaliland, is dotted with j its zawias or lodges, all absolutely do- j pendent upon the grand lodge, headed by' the master, El Sennussi. The Sennussi i stronghold of Jowf lies in the very 1 heart of the Libyan Sahara, Onlv one European, Mrs. Rosita Forbes, j has ever seen this mysterious spot."' Surrounded by absolute desert, with wells j many leagues apart and the routes of' approach known only to experienced Sennussi guides, every one of whom would suffer a thousand deaths rather than betray him, El Sennussi, the master, sits serenely apart, sending his Aiders through-! out North Africa. ° j The influence exerted by the Sennussiya j is profound'. The local zawias are more j than mere "lodges." Besides the mokaddem. or master, there is also a " wekil," ] or civil governor, and these officiers have discretionary authority, not 11 ' merely over! the zawia member:;, but also over the I community at large—at least, so great is j the awe inspired by the Sennussiya j throughout North Africa that a word from wekil or mokaddem is always listened to I and obeyed. The Sennussiya has always sept its absolute freedom of action. Its relations with the Turks have never been cordiaL Even the wily Sultan AbdulHaraid, afc the height of his prestige as the champion of Islam, could never get from El Sennussi more than coldly platonic expressions of approval, and one of Sennussi-el-Mahdi's favourito remarks was said to have been: '' Turks and Christians: I will break both of them with one and the same stroke." Force Abhorred. These Fabian t.ictics do not mean that the Sennussi are idle. Far from it. On the contrary, they are ceaselessly at work with the spiritual arms of teaching, discipline, and conversion. The Sennussi programme is the welding, first of Moslem Africa, and later of the whole Moslem world ? into the revived " imamat" of Islam s early days; into a great theocracy, embracing all true believers —in other words, Pan-Islamism. But the Sennussi behave that the political liberafadi of Islam from Christian domination must be preceded by a profound spiritual regeneration. Toward this end they istrive ceasefessjjr to improve the manners) and morals of the populations nnder their influence, while they also strive to improve materiai conditions by encouraging the better cultivation of oases, digging new wells, building rest-houses along the caravan routes and promoting trade. Mere fighting for fighting's 'sake is no part of their programme. The slaughter and rapine practised by the Sudanese Mahdists disgusted the Sennussi and drew from their chief words of scathing condemnation. Nothing better shows modern Islam's quickened vitality than the revival of missionary fervour during the past 100 years- Of course. Islam has always displayed strong converting power. Its missionary successes in its early davs were extraordinary, and even in its period of decline it never wholly lost its pristine vigour. Nevertheless, taking the Moslem world as a whole, religious zeal undoubtedly declined, reaching low-water mark during the eighteenth century. Missionary Eevival. Islam's missionary triumphs among the negroes of West and Central Africa during the past century have been extraordinary. Every candid European observer tells the same story. As an Englishman Z e Ty justly remarked some 20 years ago: Mohammedanism is mailing marvellous progress in the interior of Africa It is crushing paganism out. Against it the Christian propaganda i 3 a myth." And a French Protestant missionary remarks m similar vein: "We see Islam on its march, sometimes slowed down but never stopped, toward the heart of Africa. Despite all obstacles encountered, it tirelessly pursues its way. It fears nothing *.yen Christianity, its most serious rival Islam regards without hate, so sure ii it of victory. While Christians dream of the conquest of Africa, the Mohammedans do it."

And Islam's gains are not made solely against paganism. They are being won! at the expense of African Christianity as j welL In West Africa the European mis-' sions lose many of their converts to Islam. I while across the continent the ancient' Abyssinian Church, so long an outpost I against Islam, seems in danger of sub- j mersion by the rising Moslem tide. Not! by warlike incursions, bat bv peaceful I penetration, the Abvssinians 'are being' Islamised. Tribes which 50 or 60 years l ago counted hardly a Mohammedan! among them to-day live partly or wholly j according to the precepts of Islam. Islam's triumphs in Africa are perhaps! its most noteworthy missionary victories but they by no means tell 'the whole story. Outside of Europe. Islam is to-dav advancing rapidly, whether one look's nothward to Russian .Asia, eastward to China, or southward to Hindustan and tho Dutch liuiies. A noteworthy point is thai. European political control actually favours rather than retards the spread uf Islam, for the Moslem finds in Western improvements—like the railroad, the post! offue, and the printing press—useful adjuncts to Islamic propaganda. j A Critical Situation. What Is the specific programme of. economic Pan-Ldamism ? It is easily ! stated: The wealth of Islam for Moslems. [ Tho profits of trade and industry for Mos- : lem instead of Christian hands. The ! eviction of Western capital by Moslem Above all, the breaking of • Europe's grip on Islam's natural resources, by tho termination of concessions in ■ lands, mines, forests, railways, custom : houses, by which Iho wealth" of Islamic; lands is to-day drained away to foreign! shores. j The great war. of course, immensely] aggravated an already critical situation. ! The Orient suddenly saw the European j people who, in racial matters, had hitherto maintained something like solidarity. locked in an internecine death-grapple of unparalleled ferocity; it saw those same I peoples put one another furiously to the! ban as irreconcilable foes; it saw white 1 race-unity cleft by moral and political gulfs which white men themselves continuously iterated would never be filled. < Such is the situation to-day: An East torn by the conflict between old and new' i lacing a West riven by dissension and sick ■ Wil m ?u lolHes - Pr °bably never be- i 3d. + ; h8 r « lati °°s between the two ] *° manV Calculable, i *T£ c £ tacl ysmio, possibilities. The coin* • to be here noted is that this stnnge new' • SStrfwJK&r us is raaiA,v ,h;: