PAN-ISLAMISM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9305, 4 August 1908, Page 2

PAN-ISLAMISM.

« WHAT THE MOVEMENT IMPLIES. (" The Times.'") Pan-Islamism implies a movement among all who acknowledge- Mahomet as the Prophet of God to unite for a common purpose and to avert the disintegration which has long been apparont'in tho MaJiomedan world. There is no doubt that advocates of euch a movement exist; the important question is how far does it extend, and what, if successful, it would portend Outeido the Balkan Peninsula tho Maliomedans of the world are found chiefly along the northern, eastern, and western coasts of Africa, in dominions belonging to Turkey and Morocco, ami to England, Franco, Germany and Italy, in the Sultan's and the Czars Asiatic possessions, m Persia and Afghanistan, in India, where they number sixty-two million, and; m tno Dutch .and, English East Indies, while there are a considerable number in China. Obviously, -therefore, a real cohesion anrongst all the Ma homedans of tho world would have .tho most startling effects. It must, however be recollected, in. the first placo, that there are numerous divisions among the Mahoinedana to be bridged before any unity, either religious or political, could be attained. It is hardly possible to conceive oi : any community of interest between the barbarous fetishists who call themselves Moslems in West Africa and tho philosophical molLahs of Tehoran or tho mosque Al-Azllar in Cairo. Readers of Matthew Arnold's essays know "something of tho intense feeling which separates the Shiites of Persia and India, from their Sunnite co-reli-gionists, while our acquaintance with the history of the Soudan Msthdi's rise and of the Yemen revolt tells us that to the fanatics, who swarm in Arabia and in African Mahomedan countries, the Turk is nlmost as hateful as the Giaour. On the other hand, there are significant indications of impulses towards unity in parts, at any rate, of the Mahomedan world. The most enlightened reformers in the Turkish Empire rare convinced that their best chance of regeneration and cohesion lies in reawakening tho religions zeal of their countrymen and in purifying their religion of its corrupt-ions. The Sultan, who is regarded by most of the Sunnites as the true Khalif, is. willing to turn this movement to Jiis own uses, although he represses the educational and civilising ideas of t3i© reformers. Ho diverts the zeal wT>ich others have aroused to his own personal aggrandisement, and by craftily fostering the influence given, to him by Lis possession of the Holy Places lie turn* the eyes of all true believers to Constantinople. And this is true not only In. the case of his own subjects, but also of the Egyptians and of the subjects of Franco in North. Africa. It will be remembered that Lord Cromer in one of his reports of 1903 drew attention to the grave danger of an outbreak of religious fanaticism in Egypt due to the Turkish encroachments on the frontier, and, the French liavo found that the preachings of Pan-Islamism in the " Lewa," Mustapha Kamel Pasha's newspaper in Cairo, have been almost as dangerous in Tunis and Algiers as in Egypt. In India it is also true that the |Mo,homedans seem to bs> awakening to tho need of unity and collective action. For many years, owing to the advice of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, they pointedly abstained from the nationalist movement inaugurated by the Hindus in 1887, but in 1006 they suddenly changed their attitude. Impressed /by various indications of their loss of prestige, they determined, not indeed to join the Hindu Congress, but to form one of thoir own. The objects of the All-India Moslem League are to promote loyalty to the British Government, to protect Mahomedan interests in India, to prevent the growth of hostility between Mussulmans and any other communities, and to encourage by all possible means the spread of education among tho-ir co-religionists. Finally, in Persia, also, the present constitutional agitation is said by clearsighted observers to be at least as much a reform movement with the object of purifying arid strengthening the Mahomedan faith as one- directed against the Shah's political autocracy. These, then, are the facts, so far as we are able to gather them, with regard to Pan-Islamism. What are their causes and what do they- signify? Undoubtedly tho chiof cause is the rise of a great Asiatic Power in Japan, and its victory over a progressive European Power. But it will be noted that this cause has not quite the same result in Turkey and the countries influenced by Turkey as in India. In both cases, indeed, the effect on the most enlightened thinkers lias boen to give an impetus to education and reform. If Japan, a nation hardly freed from barbarism fifty years ago, by education and by copying the progressive methods of the West can wineo great a position in the world, why, it is asked, cannot tho followers of so pure a religion as Islam attain the same end by similar methods? But in tho Turkish Empire the Sultan , on whom all depends, has crushed all such aspirations towards improvement, and trusts to arrive at the same result by arousing the fanaticism ot his subjects and of all who look to him as tho Khalif. In India the causo is the same — the uprising of Japan. But here, where the Sultan's political influence is small, whatever may bo tho case with regard to his religious influence among the Sunnite members of the community, the reformers, who sea that the safety of Islam lips in co-operation and in progressive education, find nothing to stem the current of their ideas. The Mussulmans of India, forced by tho fear of Japanese influence and example on the Hindus to take stock of their own position, Tealise that, ii they are not to. be swamped by the tide of religions alien to theirs, they must com<> closer to the British Government, whose ideals are nearest their own. If, therefore, our view is correct, the moral to be drawn from thesfi facts is that the jrenuino Pnn-Tslamism, whiVh means improved educational methods and a new' spirit in religion, carries no mnee of alorm for us : for enlightened Mahomedanism implies progress and order. It is only t.Jie Wtard political P^Ti-Tslarmsm of the Pnloce clioue in Constantinople, and of the noitators ift Egypt, which requires vigilance.