DECLINE OF PAN-ISLAMISM

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1927, 28 October 1926, Page 3

DECLINE OF PAN-ISLAMISM

• FUTURE O'F THE MOSLEMS. That Moslem nations may one day unite 'in a holy war und'&r the grteen flag with a golden* crescent has always been an awful, if n'ever very immediate, possibility in the eyes of European ,sta:tesm|sin. The real significance in action Cf Pan-Islamism is that the success of any Moslem efforlt against the infidel creates a considerable ground swell of .restlessratess in other lands where 'Chni'sjtians rule the Eailthful. In an article entitled "The Decline of Islamism," dn the British Review for July, Dr Thomas Greenwoo'di maintains that the recent Moslem successes against Christian powers mark Itha pas'sinig of Pan-Islamism ifeeP.ing. They aire due, he says, to an intensification of nationalist sentimient in different lands a sentiment opposed to the sense of unity which has pervaded the Mohammeidan world, in the paslt, even when i|c was powerless 'to give effective expression to that feeling. " The sign, and to some 'extent the cause, of thfe 1 change is the abolition of the Sultanate by the Tjulnkish Nationalists. This hals given a 'faltal [blow Ito 'the Khalifate, as Islam does not yet recognise t'h'e difference heltween religious and secular authority. They do not easily conceive of a religious authority without temporal power. "iln assuming a ;ful ! .l-fledge ! d sovereignity as a nation, Turkey .has thereby losjt its mo rial grip over Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Moslem India, and North Africa.* Thus fit is a significant fact that tlie Moslems of India and Burma have lost their confidence in Angora, and try <tgy mend their grievances with , the iSwaraijis|tjs in order Ito lend itheir claims a true national rather than a religious charadflelr. The rising of the Druses, the Walhabite invasion of the rem en, !the 'Zaglhluliist campaign, the Kahul a'g/itajtion in Cyreniaca, and the Ruffian war wouldi have 'been a real langer -to western civilisation had ;hey emanated 'from the Sul'tan-Khial-i ;>f 'Consi-arutinople, hut they were only sporadic risings without a religious )bj6ct in whlich every leader, obsessed >y the modern 'doctrine of self-deter-nination, asphed at building up an inlependent kingdom with an illusory injoiyinent of real sovereignty.

Nationalist spirit is gtrong enough to arm Moslems against M’osMns, as •in the Kurdfisli revolt. Ithe Wahabite invasion on Arabia, Abd-el-Kirim’s war. against the .Sultan of Morocco, and the threat of Turkey |to Moslem Iraq. The mat ion all .spirit, therefore, grows moire ■straing as the .temporal power of religion weakens. A .great Moslem congress at Cairo hais just concluded a discussion on the Ehalifate. The leakned defined it as a strict theocracy, a forty of governiheht hacked by religious sanctions and moved by religious m'otives. The practical politicians of the ciongresjs, however, have put Jit into commission as a religious authority vested in a central commi|ct'ee, with national executive sub-com-mittees. Even religion is thus open to penetration by national spirit. Moslem powers, Dr Greenwood infers, are no longer so dangerous to detail with. The Government of India, for example, need have no such anxiety about Turco-British relations as i't ha’s felt in the past. Moslem progress must' come ithriejuigh Ithe secularifeatlon of the jpolitical order and the growth of a spirit of willingness to co-operate with European people.