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V4 A ivi Pe a sax THE’ WORLD CALL TO THE CHURCH. st THE ‘CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Being a comprehensive statement of the facts which constitute the Call from the Moslem World to the Church of England prepared by a Commission appointed by the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly. PREFACE, BY THE RIGHT REV. ST. CLAIR DONALDSON BISHOP OF SALISBURY PUBLISHED FOR THE MISSIONARY COUNCIL BY THE PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS BOARD OF THE CHURCH ASSEMBLY CHURCH HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, S.W.I 1926 First Impression . « « January 1926. Second Impression . . February 1926 Third Impression. . . » March 1926. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BEOCCLES. GENERAL PREFACE A FEW words are necessary about the origin and purpose of these Reports. Great movements, volcanic in their force and extent, are shaking the foundations and altering the whole aspect of human society. Old races are awakening, new races are tingling with adolescence ; and the younger generation, everywhere ignorant, and untried though it be, is minded to take command. There is need everywhere of the guidance and the constructive force which only the Christian Church can give. So we have thought and said for twenty years. But the moment has come to face actual facts. If, as we believe, the times are making a new and unprecedented call upon the Church, it is high time that we knew accurately in terms of men and money what that call really is. It may be that the facts when known will themselves act with awakening power upon the Church. It may be that the young men and women when they see the God-given opportunity for adventure and sacrifice will not be ‘ dis- obedient unto the heavenly vision,’ and a great movement of self-offering will be seen in our time such as the Church has never known hitherto. On the other hand, it may be that the Church will turn a deaf ear, that the seductive influences of comfort and the zest of domestic controversy may have paralysed her spirit. Whichever way it be, the Church of our generation is on its trial, and the opportunity before us is the tribunal before which we shall be judged. At all costs it is necessary that the whole Church should Vv vi GENERAL PREFACE know the facts. It is the watchman’s duty to give the warning and sound the call to arms. When he has done that, the responsibility lies on the Church, and he has delivered his soul. It was with these thoughts in our mind that we of the Missionary Council in January of this year laid before the accredited Missionary Societies our plan for a series of comprehensive Reports. We selected four great areas where we deemed the needs were most urgent; namely Africa, India, the Far East, and Moslem lands, and we invited them to form with us four Commissions dealing with these areas. The response was unanimous and cordial, and. since then, representatives of the Societies and other groups with specialized knowledge have given their time and experience unstintingly to the work. It has been a work of experts drawn almost entirely from the Missionary Societies ; and the intelligence and enthusiasm with which it has been done will, we believe, be apparent in the pages which follow. But the authority behind them is even higher than the Missionary Societies, for in May last a full meeting of the Bishops at Lambeth unanimously passed the following Resolution :— That the Bishops of the Provinces of Canterbury, York and Wales have heard with great thankfulness of the intention of the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly to bring out in co-operation with the Mis- sionary Societies a comprehensive statement of the spiritual needs of the world in terms of money and personal agents ; and believe that an expert statement of this kind is demanded by the situation and is a neces- sary preliminary to the great offering of life which is called for in our generation and that the time and energy of the Societies is well spent in this task. The method of the Commissions has been to collect all the facts about their particular area which could be ascer- tained here at home, to consult the overseas authorities (the Bishops, Missionary Committees, etc.), and then to GENERAL PREFACE vil draft their Report in England. The Overseas Bishops indeed have had a very large share in the work, many of the Bishops having sent memoranda, but it is necessary nevertheless to say that the Missionary Council, with which has lain the task of editing the work and passing it through the press, is alone ultimately responsible for the actual Reports. It was obviously impossible, unless publication were indefinitely postponed, to submit final drafts in every case to every one concerned. Moreover, it has been found exceedingly difficult to state with precise accuracy what the actual demands in men and money were likely to be within the next ten years. Some guess work was inevitable, but the guessing has always been by those who know most of the work, and the figures in every case represent the minimum and not the maximum requirement. It is impossible to give a full list of all those to whom we are indebted for this great labour of love, but our readers will be interested to know the names of the Rev. Canon K. F. Spanton, Miss Bulley, and Mrs. Fisher in connection with the Africa Report; of the Rev. E. F. E. Wigram and specially Bishop Whitehead in respect of the India Report; of the Rev. Dr. Weitbrecht Stanton, the Rev. EK. M. Bickersteth, and specially the Rev. W. Wilson Cash in respect of the Moslem Report; and of the Rev. Dr. Tissington Tatlow, Dr. H. H. Weir, Mrs. Bickersteth, Mrs. Forester, and specially the Rev. P. M. Scott and the Rev. J. C. Mann in respect of the Report on the Far East. The Reports must be regarded as an instalment of the whole case. We have reported first on those areas where the appeal seemed most urgent and peremptory and large tracts of the world are left so far untouched. We hope, however, if the response of the Church admits of it, to com- plete the task at a later stage. Already a Commission is at work on a Report upon the needs of our own people overseas. It has been impossible in these Reports, each of which deals with a special area, to indicate the extent of the Church’s debt to those great societies whose organization Vili GENERAL PREFACE is everywhere ancillary to the Church. It is not too much to say that without the British and Foreign Bible Society, missionary work would be almost impossible, and the services rendered to the whole Church by such organizations as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are hardly less vital. It must be borne in mind that while these Reports are the work of the Church of England, those who have framed them have tried to envisage the whole task required by the Purpose of God before making an attempt to estimate the special share of that task which falls to the Church of England. Throughout we have been keenly conscious of our fellow- labourers in other Communions. Of the great missionary work of the Church of Rome we have no means of obtaining accurate information; but the missionary labours of the rest of Christendom have been before us continually, and the non-episcopal Missionary Societies in England have placed their great knowledge at our disposal with the utmost kindness. To Mr. J. H. Oldham of the International Missionary Council, to Mr. Kenneth Maclennan of the Conference of British Missionary Societies, and to Mr. F. H. Hawkins of the London Missionary Society we owe a very special debt of gratitude. Indeed, the whole-hearted inter- change of knowledge and experience and the general endeavour to co-operate in spite of our differences in pre- senting a common front to the non-Christian world is one of the great steps which our generation is making towards the reunion of Christendom. So we present our Reports. We present them ‘ with fear and great joy ’; with fear, because of the demand they make, so far exceeding all we have known hitherto, so far exceeding in their claim the measure of sacrifice we have hitherto been prepared to give; but with great joy because we are conscious of a power carrying us forward which is not our own. They knew in the first days that the Lord was risen and working among them by ‘many infallible proofs.’ There are many infallible proofs around us to-day. GENERAL PREFACE 1x God is at work in the world: He is speaking to His Church ; we know it, and we shall see and hear the more plainly as we school ourselves to obey. I speak for my fellow-workers when I say that this our first act of obedience has brought us unspeakable joy; and we trust to see greater things than these. it is true indeed that fear re-asserts itself. The de- mands we make are exorbitant, unprecedented; and the home difficulties are immense. What will the Church do in response? Will the offering of life be adequate? Will an adequate offering of wealth follow the offering of life ? We who love the Church must needs be walking these days in fear. Yet we can abate no jot of our demands on that account. We take the risk. We believe that God has spoken; and when God speaks, man’s hope and strength are to obey. St. CLAIR SARUM, Chawman, Missionary Council of the Church Assembly. St. Andrew’s Day, 1925. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ‘ PAGE GENERAL PREFACE . ; j : ; ‘ ; ° Vv TABLE OF CONTENTS ; 5 ; ‘ : o ; x BIBLIOGRAPHY ‘ ‘ ‘ i : ; : : xi FOREWORD BY THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION . ot) roe I. Tue Worup or Istam . : : ‘ : ; ; 3 II. Oprzn Doors In THE Mostem WorLD . ; : « eee III. Tae Cuurce in tHE Mostem Worip 4 ; : + Nua IV. Tur Task oF THE CHURCH . : : : ‘ er. V. Tue Cost to THE CHURCH : ‘ : ; ; : 5 eae STATISTICAL TABLES 4 : ; ‘ ‘ : eey |. INDEX . A x ‘ e ‘ 4 ; ; Pe «| MAP GeNERSsL Map of THE Mostem WorzLpD . : , Frontispiece BIBLIOGRAPHY Tus list is intended for the general reader and therefore excludes books which presuppose a knowledge of Arabic. Those who are unable to read more than one or two books are recommended to take those marked with an asterisk. Books dealing with the various Moslem lands and missions will be found in the libraries of the missionary societies :— KoRAN AND TRADITIONS: *T'ranslation of the Koran. Rodwell. Dent. 2s. 6d. 1909. Selections from the Qur’an. H. U. W. Stanton. 8.P.C.K. Is. 1922. The Teaching of the Quran. H. U. W. Stanton. S.P.C.K. 7s. 1919. Historical Development of the Qur’an. E. Sell. Simpkin Marshall. 2s. 6d. 1925. Selections from Muhammedan Traditions. W. Goldsack. Chris- tian Literature Society for India. 6s. 8d. 1923. HISTORICAL : {The Life of Mahomet. W. Muir. Gurney & Jackson. 15s. 1894. {Lhe Infe of Muhammad. E. Sell. Christian Literature Society for India. 3s. 1913. Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. D. 8. Margoliouth. Putnam. 5s. 1905. *The Story of Islam. T. R. W. Lunt. Edinburgh House. 1s. 1916 The Preaching of Islam. Sir Thomas Arnold. Constable. 12s. 6d. 1913. The Caliphate. Sir Thomas Arnold. Oxford University Press. 10s. 6d. 1924, DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE: *An Outline of the Religion of Islam. H. U. W. Stanton. Mis- sionary Literature Supply, Church House, 8.W.1. Ils. 1925. The Faith of Islam. E. Sell. S.P.C.K.. 10s. 1896. Muslim Theology. D.B. Macdonald. Routledge. 8s. 6d. 1906. The Moslem Doctrine of God. S. M. Zwemer. Revell. U.S.A. 1905. The Moslem Christ. 8. M. Zwemer. Revell. U.S.A. 1912. The Mystics of Islam. R.A. Nicholson. Bell. 1s. 1914. xii BIBLIOGRAPHY THE MopERN AGE: The New World of Islam. Lothrop Stoddard. Chapman & Hall. 16s. 1921. *The Moslem World in Revolution. W. W. Cash. Edinburgh House. 2s. 1925. Modern Religious Movements in India. Farquhar. Macmillan. 12s. 6d. 1915. The Ahmadiya Movement. Walter. Milford. 3s. 6d. 1918. Bahaism and its Claims. Wilson. Revell. 7s. 6d. 1915. The Spirit of Islam. Ameer Ali. Lahiri, Calcutta. 30s. 1922. The Law of Apostasy in Islam. S.M. Zwemer. Marshalls. 6s. 1924. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY : tislam. S.M. Zwemer. S.V.M. New York. 1907. *The Rebuke of Islam. W.H.T. Gairdner. C.M.S. Is. 6d. 1920. Aspects of Islam. D.B. Macdonald. Macmillan. 6s. 6d. 1911. Christianity and Muhammedanism. G. Dale. U.M.C.A. Is. Tthed. 1925. The Moslem World of To-day. Edited by John R. Mott. Hodder & Stoughton. 8s. 6d. 1925. {The Report on the Conference of Christian Workers among Moslems at Jerusalem. ‘Is. 6d. Edinburgh House. 1924. The Jerusalem Conference Report. Edited by E. Shillito. 6d. Edinburgh House. 1924. Christian Literature in Moslem Lands—a study of the activities of the Moslem and Christian press in all Moslem countries. 10s. 6d. Edinburgh House. 1923. BooKS OF REFERENCE: {Dictionary of Islam. Edited by Hughes. Encyclopedia of Islam. Edited by Houtsma and Arnold. Now being published in 50 parts. 5s. each. Luzac. Enclycopedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by Hastings. T. & T. Clark. The Moslem World (Quarterly), 8s. per year, post free, edited by S. M. Zwemer, is a treasury of information and thought in all matters connected with missions to Moslems. Missionary Literature Supply, Church House, 8.W.1. Books marked (+) are out of print, but may be borrowed for a small fee from the libraries of the 8.P.G. (15, Tufton Street, S.W.1) or C.M.S. (Salisbury Square, E.C.4), as well as most of the other books. ‘The libraries also supply many books descriptive of life and work in Moslem lands. FOREWORD BY THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE MOSLEM WORLD THis report of a commission meeting to consider the commitments and needs of the Anglican Church in the Moslem World is of necessity very different in matter and form from those presented by the commissions on India, Africa, and the Far East. The reasons for this are fairly obvious. In the first place, geographically the Moslem World covers a considerable part of the areas dealt with by the other commissions, for it includes large sections of India, Africa, and the Far East. We have therefore left all consideration of the geographical background and all description of diocesan areas to those who have framed these other three Reports. Moreover, in no part of the Moslem World are we dealing with large indigenous Christian Churches in communion with our own, the result of conver- sions from the faith of Islam. Missionary work among Moslems presents a very early stage in Church development. It is still largely a “‘ pioneer’ work and its problems are still almost wholly those of the evangelistic missionary, whether the work is undertaken in hospital or school or at some preaching centre, or through the dissemination of Christian literature. What we have striven to show in this Report is the need for such evangelistic work in the Moslem World to-day, xiii X1V FOREWORD how great the opportunities are for its prosecution, and how rapidly present-day movements in the Moslem World are facilitating the preaching of the Gospel. We have tried also to show how in a special way the Moslem World has become a field for Anglican missionary work, and how much must be done if the work our Church has so honourably started is to be brought to effective fruition. We have suggested certain lines of advance urgently called for, and we have indicated as best we could what such advance is likely to entail in money and personal agents. It has been extremely difficult to make the statement of needs really definite and practical, for in the Moslem World we are dealing with problems which the Churches as yet have done relatively very little to solve, and our impression of the general lines along which mission policy is likely to develop is therefore correspondingly tentative. It is, moreover, very difficult to give an opinion as to how much of the whole missionary work of the Church of Christ in the vast area covered by this Report we may rightly think of as a task set the Anglican Church, though, having in view the fact that there are over ninety million Moslems living under British rule, there can be no doubt that our share must be very large. Nor has it been at all easy to indicate the degree of reinforcement needed even for the missionary work for which our section of the Church has already made itself responsible. All we can say is, that we have striven to get material for this report from every available source, and to reduce this material to the statement of a case which seems to us to be quite incontrovertible. Whatever criticisms may be levelled at our work, we are at any rate certain that no one will be able to charge us with over- statement of the need for the extension of the missionary activities of our Church in the Moslem World. THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD 35 CHAPTER I THE WORLD OF ISLAM Istam is the only one of the great religions to come after Christianity ; the only one that definitely claims to correct, complete, and supersede Christianity ; the only one that categorically denies the truth of Christi- anity ; the only one that has in the past signally de- feated Christianity; the only one that seriously disputes the world with Christianity ; the only one which, in several parts of the world, is to-day fore- stalling and gaining on Christianity.* What is Islam? What is this faith that challenges the Christian Church in every continent in the world, and that disputes with us our claims to represent a faith at once universal and applicable to every race and clime, and to every age and period ? It is not the purpose of this report to write a history of Mohammedanism. For this we would refer our readers to the Bibliography at the beginning of this book. In order, however, to make clear the present position in the Moslem world, and the opportunity now confronting the Church, we must give a brief summary of some of the leading events in Islamic history. The founder of Islam.—Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia, was born in the year A.D. 570, at Mecca, in Arabia. Up to the age of forty he showed little if any sign of the latent forces of leadership and power that so marked his subsequent career. At about forty years of age he retired into the desert for meditation, and claimed to have visions, * Canon W. H. T. Gairdner, “‘ The Menace of Islam,”’ C.M.S, 3 4. THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD in which God spoke to him. He believed he was called of God to be His chosen instrument to lead the world back to a pure monotheistic faith, in which Allah was to be universally worshipped, and His prophet acknowledged. A study of the Koran shows that Mohammed derived the substance of his ‘ revelation’ from Judaism and Chris- tianity, with an infusion of Arabian tradition, including heathen elements, and traces of other religions. Broadly, the book divides into two sections, comprising respectively the oracles uttered at Mecca and those given later at Medina. The first set are those of a man mainly sincere in aim, pro- claiming the unity of God with such light as he could find from imperfect knowledge of the earlier great religions. Along with other seekers he had rejected Arabian paganism yet reverenced Arab tradition. From neighbouring Jews and Christians he had gathered some knowledge of the stories of the Old Testament and the Gospels as current among them, largely in apocryphal forms. From these he took over the body of his teaching, seeing himself as the last of a long succession of prophets, which included Moses, David, and Jesus, destined to restore the faith of Abraham in the One God, Creator and Judge. After the flight to Medina in A.D. 622 a definite change came over this remarkable man. The chapters of the Koran subsequently written show how, through prosperity and power, Mohammed was deflected from the idealism of the Mecca days. Revelations became a convenient medium for escaping from awkward situations and embarrassments. The sword was drawn in defence of the faith and ‘ to extend.’ as the prophet said, ‘the House of Islam in all parts. Many of the laws affecting the welfare of women—such as divorce, the veil, the harem, etc.—emanate from this period, and the evils for which Mohammed and Islam are responsible in the world from the seventh century down to to-day are ~ traceable to the actions of the prophet at a time when he was morally going downhill, and using his claim to divine inspiration for his own ends. THE WORLD OF ISLAM 5 Those who wish to study this side of Islam are advised to secure a copy of Rodwell’s translation of the Koran, published in the Everyman’s Library. It gives the chapters in chronological order, and the reader will soon be able to trace the nobler traits, as well as the less satisfactory side, in the character of one of the most outstanding men in history. The expansion and decline of Islam.—The expansion of Islam is a phenomenon in even the military history of the world. In ten short years, Islamic armies had met the organized forces of Byzantine Rome, and the power of Persia, and crushed them in each successive battle. Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, were conquered and occupied. Mesopotamia and Persia were also annexed to the new Arab empire. Later Islam subdued Central Asia and penetrated by conquest through Afghanistan and into India and China. Eventually a solid block of Mohammedan territory was formed, stretching from northern Africa right across to western Asia, with outposts in the Far East and in Europe. The menace of Islam to Europe began with the invasion of Spain, but was checked by Charles Martel in the famous battle of Tours in a.p. 732. The Mohammedans, under Turkish leadership, made a second grand effort to conquer Europe from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. The real danger was brought home to Europe by the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453. Islamic armies advanced through the Balkans, and hammered for years at the gates of Vienna. In 1683 the city was saved by John Sobieski, king of Poland. Gradually the Moslem armies were rolled back, and central and western Europe breathed freely again. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, largely owing to the spread of scientific knowledge in the West, and the development of European commerce, Islam shrank in temporal power, and a process of contraction set in. The whole of North Africa, from the Nile Delta to the 6 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Straits of Gibraltar, passed under the control of European powers, and in the nineteenth century Islam politically was represented mainly by Turkey, often called ‘the sick man of Europe.’ It is important to note that throughout this period Mohammedan leaders never lost sight of the old ideals of Islam—the division of the world into two parts—the ‘ House of Islam’ and the rest of the world, the ‘ House of War.’ This division lay at the basis of the Moslem attitude to the world in general. Behind it was the command of the prophet to carry on a ‘Jihad’ or Holy War until the ‘House of Islam’ was extended throughout the world (see Koran viii. 40; ix. 5-vi. 29; iv. 76-79; ii. 214-215; and Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam, article ‘ Jihad ’). The impact of the Great War.—When, in 1914, Turkey entered the war it was with the object of making Islam once more a world power. The green flag of the Holy War was unfurled, Moslem soldiers were told they were fighting for the faith, and to stimulate their zeal, a report was circulated that Germany and Austria, led by the Kaiser, had become Mohammedan, and that England and France were fighting to compel them to renounce Islam in favour of Christianity. The end of the war dispelled this illusion. The ex- perience that the war years had given to Mohammedans in the armies, both of the Central Powers and of the Entente, had thrown a flood of new light upon world affairs, and Moslems in 1919 began to take stock of a new situation. They saw that Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and Meso- potamia had all passed out of the hands of the Turks. The sacred cities of Islam—Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem —were ruled by European nations. Mecca, the centre and home of Islam, had revolted against Turkey, and the soldiers of Arabia had actually fought side by side with British troops. The future was as black as could be for organized Islam ; and the religious leaders had to face the further difficulty of the influence of the West upon Moslem mind, THE WORLD OF ISLAM 7 thought, and outlook. The old Islam, that for centuries had stood as a bulwark against the West, seemed crumbling, broken up by the force of waves of agnosticism, rationalism, and. modern ideals. There emerged from the chaos an idea that had found expression in Turkey in 1908—that of nationality. Self- determination became the slogan in many lands, and Moslems began to look upon their countries from the stand- point of nationalism rather than Pan-Islamism. The Pan- Islamic movement had sought to unite Moslems in every country under the one flag of a common faith. Its aim was the defence of the religion of Islam, in the face of western aggression, and the spread of the faith politically, as well as religiously, throughout the world. When Turkey overthrew the Sultan, and declared a republic, Pan-Islamism received a blow so severe that many felt it meant the death of the Pan-Islamic movement. When a little time later the Caliph was ignominiously driven out of Constantinople, disinherited and disendowed, the Moslem world stood aghast at the sacrilege. Yet this was the logical outcome of placing nationality above and before Islam. Turkey had decided that the laws of Islam, however divine people might think them to be, were archaic, out of date, useless for the demands of to-day and the needs of a country that was progressive and modern. Turkey pro- claimed to the world her determination to govern her country on modern lines, and not to allow the religious leaders of - Islam to dictate her policy. The repercussion of this action was felt throughout the world of Islam, and the educated Moslems were torn two ways. They admired the brilliant achievement of Mustapha Kemal, they applauded his modern outlook, but they deplored the blow it had meant to Islam. Since then strenuous efforts have been made to reconcile the attitude of Mustapha Kemal at once to his country and his religion with a new philosophy of Islam. Readers of the Moslem magazine, the Islamic Review, published at Woking, will 8 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD have noticed how anxious the thinking Moslems are to find a way out of the impasse, and to secure some basis of future co-operation between Turkish nationalists and the rest of the educated Moslem world. That this policy of Turkey, and the attitude adopted by the ‘New Islam’ party in Aligarh and Woking, does not represent the old Islamic outlook, is apparent from another series of events. The ideal of world conquest by means of a Holy War has always burned brightest in the Near East and in Arabia. When in 1803 the Wahhabis captured Mecca, pilgrims from the Dutch Indies, British India, Nigeria, and North Africa, who had come under their influence, carried back to their lands a new and burning passion for their faith, and this passion in many cases found expression in the foment- ing of a Holy War. Troubles broke out in several countries where these fanatical pilgrims returned. They preached a crusade against non-Moslems, and massacres and perse- cutions followed. In 1924 the Wahhabis again marched on Mecca, drove out the king, and occupied the country. This is one of the most significant events since the war, and it has attracted the attention of all orthodox Moslems. The head of the Senoussi sect in North Africa lost no time in getting in touch with Ibn Saoud, the head of the Wahhabis. On the extreme west in Morocco Abdel Krim has been fighting the Spaniards, and latterly the French, in an endeavour to set up a purely Moslem state in Morocco. These events in Arabia and Africa may appear to be isolated from the main stream of world affairs, but as a matter of fact they all represent the old orthodox ideal of Islam that the true Believers are called of God to defend Islam by the sword and other secular means in every land. These movements are the orthodox Moslems’ reply to the chaos following the war. Modern movements.—It will be seen that there are in the Moslem world to-day two separate and apparently divided movements: the one modern, national, and pro- gressive, headed by Turkey; and the other orthodox, THE WORLD OF ISLAM 9 reactionary, and fanatical, headed bythe Wahhabis. The problem facing Islam is whether these two seemingly divided policies can be reconciled, and whether the now scattered forces of Islam can be united in a common cause. There is evidence to show that this may be possible (though at present it appears remote), for there is one factor, common to all Moslems of all shades of thought and outlook, namely, opposition to what is termed western aggression. The hatred of the West may bind together the sundered forces of Islam. Moslems feel bitterly the domination of their lands by Europe. While they wish to copy our methods, study our books, and learn all they can of western civilization and power, yet they are solidly opposed to any control by Europe in the East. Thus the political situation is complicated by cross- currents of conflicting Moslem ambitions and aims. Islamic ideals clash with national aspirations. Modern methods of government find no sanction in the Koran. Western educa- tion makes the orthodox Moslem position untenable, and wherever we turn there is unrest and revolution. Turkey, in 1925, passed a law closing all Moslem Dervish monasteries. All these institutions are to be dis- endowed and the property confiscated by the state. This law goes further still. It forbids the forming of Dervish or similar religious orders in Turkey, and the well-known dress of the itinerant Dervish is to be abolished. This single decree will throw upon the world 10,000 Dervishes, who, because of their past life and calling, must rank largely among the unemployables, and as their funds are con- fiscated they may become an army of discontented, fanatical agitators. Druses and Arabs are in revolt against the French in Syria, and the combined armies of France and Spain are trying to crush the Morocco rising. In Arabia the prophet’s tomb at Medina has been bombarded by a Wahhabi force. England and Turkey are in conflict at the League of Nations over the possession of Mosul in Mesopotamia, another 10 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD important Islamic area. The Moslems of India, after supporting a pro-Turkish policy for years, find the bottom has dropped out of their programme through Mustapha Kemal Pasha’s anti-religious laws. The Mohammedans of China are taking their part in the present agitations, and are seeking co-operation with their co-religionists of India against England. Meanwhile, in the midst of these disruptive forces, there are other influences at work which are profoundly affecting Islam. Education, western civilization, modern thought, new contacts with the non-Moslem world, the cinema, the theatre, the press, literature, wireless, and a thousand other things are opening the minds of Mohammedans to ideas once despised because they were non-Koranic, and to Christian teaching once rejected as unorthodox. The educated classes, searching for light, need the mind of Christ to illuminate life with the high purpose of sacrificial service; the women of Islam, fettered by the laws of a barbaric age, need the emancipating power of the Gospel to lift them to their rightful place in both home and social life ; the peasant and illiterate classes, frequently attached to some Dervish order or other, need to know the Fatherhood of God and the goal of their quest for the divine; and the Sufi mystic, seeking an experience of God, needs to be brought face to face with Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Church has a contribution to make to Moslem needs; in fact, she holds the answer to what is literally a search for God throughout the Islamic world. CHAPTER II OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD I Tux previous chapter traced the expansion of Islam down to the sixteenth century, the decline of Moslem political power from that date to 1914, and the present changes and up- heavals in Islam. The conclusion drawn was that there is going on in the Moslem world a quest, which many describe as a new search for God. Why should the Church do Moslem work P—The question naturally arises—Does the Moslem world need Christianity ? Is Islam not good enough for Mohammedans ?. Why should we seek to change the religious beliefs of a people who are neither pagans nor idolaters and already hold many doctrines in common with Christianity ? The religious answer.—The Church, as the Body of Christ, exists as the medium through which Christ can express Himself and His message to the world. Even a slight study of the Gospels will convince us that our Lord’s teaching has a universal application, transcending age, race, and nationality, and that His horizon, being world-wide, must be Islam-wide. Loyalty to our Lord alone demands that our vision of a world need shall have the same range as His, and that the work of the Church shall be unfettered by national prejudices, self-centred policies, and a lack of faith in the power of the Gospel as adequate to the needs of the whole world, and therefore to the needs of Islam. Behind the simple command to ‘preach the Gospel to every creature ’ lies the deep and far-reaching purpose of God for 11 12 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD world redemption. Through the Cross of Christ the deep in the love of God calls unto the deep in the heart of man. At Calvary there is neither bond nor free, male nor female, nation nor race, but one great world need and one supreme revelation of God in Christ meeting that need. The history of Christianity shows that as different races and religions have been evangelized they have enriched the Church with their own peculiar contributions. Islam has ever been famous for its brotherhood, for the zeal it kindles among its followers and their missionary enthusiasm. What would the evangelization of Islam mean for the Church ? In India Moslem converts have been conspicuous for zeal in evangelising outcastes. ‘The Church to-day, with its unhappy divisions, would be immeasurably strengthened by an Islam won for Christ. On religious grounds alone, therefore, there are two strong reasons for this call to the Church from the Moslem world. Loyalty and obedience to our Lord demands it, and the need of the Church herself makes Moslem evangeliza- tion a vital necessity. The historical answer.—A study of the map will quickly reveal the startling fact that Islam has occupied and en- trenched itself in the very lands where Christianity had its origin and where the early Church commenced her great task of world evangelization. What are called Bible lands are to-day Moslem lands. Jerusalem is a sacred city in Islam, and many of the towns and cities in which St. Paul preached are to-day predominantly Moslem. Damascus, once a Christian city with a beautiful basilica, is now a Moslem stronghold. The cathedral is a mosque; but the old Christian inscription, cut in bold Greek letters in the stone of the outer wall, still remains. It reads, ‘Thy Kingdom, O Christ, is an ever- lasting Kingdom.’ Surely the very stones cry out to the Christian Church to establish Christ’s kingdom in this, the oldest city in the world. It is a tragedy that at this very time a destructive bombardment of Damascus by the OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 13 artillery of a western power should emphasize the complete failure of the western world to rely on the only weapons that can win victories for the kingdom of Christ. Cilicia, the scene of St. Paul’s preaching and travels, is famed since 1919 for the indiscriminate massacre of Armenians. Here, in one of the first centres of Apostolic evangelization, thousands of Christian girls are to-day held in slavery in Moslem harems. It was of the Church in Smyrna that it was said, ‘I know thy tribulations. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.’ How suggestive this is to-day. The Turks have sacked, pillaged, and devastated it. The city is in ruins, the people slaughtered, and the women driven to a worse fate than death. St. Paul probably founded the Church in Ancyra, famous for the labours of Basil and the Christian Council of a.p. 358. To-day it is Angora, the seat of the Turkish government, and the centre of the reform move- ments in Islam. It is 1600 years since the Council of Nicea met. The town was captured by the Turks in A.D. 1330, and has sunk now, under Moslem rule, to an insignificant and poor little village. Carthage was destroyed by a Moslem army in a.D. 698, and to-day there is not a living representative outside Egypt of the Church of North Africa. Islam has blotted it out. From the historical point of view it is clear that Moslem work is not only a duty but it is an imperative and urgent necessity. ‘The fate of the Church in the past that failed in the day of opportunity stands out as a glaring warning to us to-day. The strategic answer.—It may be argued that while all this is true, yet Islamic evangelization should be postponed, both because Moslems do know something of one God, and because the urgency of other work claims all the Church’s energy and support. On strategic grounds alone this argument can be shown to be unsound. A study of the map at the beginning of this report will show how Islam holds the strategic centres of Asia. It lies astride the continent, watchful and aggressive, and for 14 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD good or ill it affects the whole life of Asia and the future oi the continent depends largely upon the future of Islam. It has been the aim of the Christian Church to build up in Asia indigenous and self-expanding Churches which to-day are rapidly growing and becoming an increasing factor in the national life of the countries of the East; all around them is this Mohammedan force. Can we afford to leave it unevangelized ? Dare we leave our infant Churches to grow up with a strong and actively hostile faith ever seeking to capture them for Islam ? The theory is often put forward that we ought to con- centrate upon mass movements and pagan work in the hope that ultimately the Churches thus raised up will themselves tackle the Moslem problem. But will they? The history of the Church shows that the neglect of Islam in the past has cost the Church dearly. With no sense of responsibility for Moslem evangelization, Churches have often come to view the task as impossible, and consequently they have lost more adherents to Islam than ever Islam has lost to Christianity. It is always dangerous to leave in the rear of an advancing army a hostile force which threatens the lines of communication, and this is exactly what the Church is doing in its present policy overseas. We are building up church life and neglecting the great problem of Islam. Africa and the East will never be won for Christianity until the Church takes up more seriously the question of a right presentation of the Gospel to the Moslem peoples. The future of the young Churches growing up in the East makes it impossible to postpone this task, and the great Moslem problem confronting missionary societies should at once be faced honestly and boldly by the whole Church. The political answer.—From these other aspects turn to the political and international side of the question. Islam has conquered and holds to-day a block of territory including Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Syria Palestine and all Northern Africa. OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 15 In India Moslem expansion, due in the first instance to armed force, has spread rapidly by other means also in the past century, and the Indian Mohammedans now number about 70 million. The Dutch East Indies have a population of 49 million, eighty per cent. of which is Moslem, This faith has spread as far as China, and there are about 8 million Moslems in the celestial empire. There is scarcely an international problem to-day that is not in some way affected by the Moslem question. Hast and West are drifting further apart; modern western science and civilization is not unifying but rather dividing them, and the race antagonisms and the conflicts between East and West are closely bound up with Islam, and no solution to the race problem can be found that eliminates Islam. A further fact emerges as we study Islam. To-day eighty-three per cent. of the Moslems of the world (number- ing altogether about 235 million) are under the rule or pro- - tection of Western powers. Great Britain alone is respon- sible for 94 million, Holland 39 million, Russia 15 million, and France 32 million. Not more than 30 million are living in independent Moslem states, and another 17 million in semi-independent or mandated territory. The political responsibility of Great Britain towards Mohammedans is greater than that of any other power in the world. The social answer.—A study of Islam shows further that where Moslems have held political rule over countries the people have become backward and unprogressive. Islam has made most progress, socially, ethically, and nationally, in those countries where Moslems have been thrown into contact with western powers, although in such lands they have always had the fullest freedom in the exercise of their faith. Among the few remaining places in the world where slavery can be openly practised and slaves bought and sold freely is Arabia, where the rule is purely Islamic and where the practice is sanctioned both by the Koran and the example of the prophet Mohammed. The position of women in 16 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Islam is too well known to require elaboration. Hasy divorce, polygamy, wife beating, and other evils, are all approved by the ‘divine’ authority of the Koran, and modern movements of woman’s emancipation are not due to a development of Moslem ideals and progress, but in spite of the direct teaching of Mohammed. It is the influence of the West, and particularly of the Christian Church, that is leading the women of Islam to demand freedom and liberty. Here then is a further reason why the Church must now face the Moslem situation. Educated Islam of both sexes is breaking away from past traditions. The men are feeling after a new faith suited to modern requirements, and the women are making a pathetic struggle for their rights. The Church believes she holds just what will help these people most, but she is paralysed by a sense of past failures. To rise above the discouragements which long-con- tinued failure has begotten and to enter upon a task so formidable as the evangelization of the Moslem world, demands a more buoyant and daring faith, a more triumphant confidence in the Gospel as the supreme treasure for all mankind than the Church now possesses. Many in the Church have questioned the need of Islam for the Gospel, the glamour of a monotheistic faith with many points in common with Christianity, has created a doubt in the minds of some as to whether the Ckurch is right in seeking to introduce a new faith to a people who already believe in one God. The inadequacy of Islam to meet the deepest spiritual needs of mankind is to be measured by the difference between an ideal which finds its highest expression in Mohammed, and one which is incarnated in Christ; and for those who have seen Jesus Christ that difference is a difference of worlds. OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 17 II From what has been said in this chapter it is clear that the Church is faced with a new call to a great task, and on religious grounds this task is of vital importance to the future of Christianity. Politically we have seen how Islam is the key to the Asiatic problem and that the contribu- tion of the Church is the one hope of unity in the present increasing race antagonisms. We have seen how Islam geographically lies right across the world’s highways along which trade, thought and race intercourse move. We are faced with a tremendous task. Is the time ripe for attempting the evangelization of Islam ? Is the time now ripe? Emphatically, Yes. The time is ripe because the Moslem world to-day is accessible to the Gospel as never before. Geographic accessibility.—The Moslem Conference held in Jerusalem in April, 1924, reported in its findings as follows : Of the population of the Moslem world, which numbers about 234 million, we find that no less than four-fifths are increasingly accessible to every method of missionary approach. This is true, for example, of all British India, the Dutch East Indies, Persia, Meso- potamia, China, the Balkans, the whole of North Africa, and Central, East and West Africa, with the possible exception of Northern Nigeria. This is not the sweeping statement of a fanatical en- thusiast, but the sober opinion, after an exhaustive ex- amination of the situation, of missionary experts from all parts of the Moslem world. A century ago missionaries died hammering at closed doors, and the Church despaired of progress in view of the closed minds of Moslems to outside influence. There is overwhelming evidence to prove that remarkable changes have come over the Moslem peoples in recent years. How have they come about and what are these changes ? There has been a startling development in the ease of communications throughout the Near East and Northern 36 18 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Africa. Thousands of miles of railways and motor roads have been built. The train, the motor car, and the aeroplane have opened up new highways in the desert. A motor mail service, for example, runs now between Baghdad and Damascus, and the distance can be covered in nineteen hours. An air-post service is developing between Palestine and Baghdad, and an aeroplane can cross the desert to Mesopotamia in six hours. Persia is building highways, and Abyssinia’s capital is now a railway terminus. ‘The highways for the Gospel are nearly everywhere prepared.’ Rapid and easy communication means something far more significant than rapid transit for the globe-trotter. It means the linking up of hitherto separated yet kindred peoples. Natives of Moslem lands, who formerly rarely travelled more than a few miles from their homes, now see the world, and with new facilities for travel there has come to the Moslems a new desire to visit and study the West. This is seen from the fact that more Moslems now visit Kurope annually than make their pilgrimage to Mecca. Mental accessibility.—The significance of this is not perhaps at first apparent, but Europe and Mecca each represent types of thought and outlook, and means of travel are opening up thought highways as well as motor roads. It is not the fact of easy transport that is of im- portance, but the influence of such travel on Moslem minds. The press, the cinema, and so forth, are highways into minds often hitherto closed to non-Moslem influences. Mecca and its pilgrimage represent orthodox Islam and the full teaching of the Koran as an infallible guide in all affairs of life, both religious and social. It has frequently in the past stood for the ‘Jihad,’ and Mecca pilgrims have been fired with zeal for a Holy War in their own country. Europe represents to the Moslem visitor new thought, progress, civilization, and a score of influences, all of which are non- Moslem, and make for a more tolerant spirit and greater freedom of thought among a people famed for fanaticism. Political accessibility—In the past many restrictions OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 19 have been placed upon missionaries in Moslem lands by governments. Gradually these have been withdrawn, as it was discovered that the people themselves would welcome the missionaries if the government would allow them in. Political conditions are to-day on the whole strikingly favourable for the spread of the Gospel. Colonial governments, once hostile to missions among Moslems, have become increasingly friendly, and in some cases are supporting the medical and social pro- grammes of missions. In mandated territories clauses have been inserted in treaties safeguarding liberty of conscience for all. The following is quoted from Article 12 of the Anglo-Iraq Treaty of 1923: No measure shall be taken in Iraq to obstruct or interfere with missionary enterprise or to discriminate against any missionary on the ground of his religious belief or nationality provided that such enterprise is not prejudicial to public order or good government. In lands where the Moslem law of apostasy was in operation before the war it was practically impossible for any one to declare his faith in Christianity. If he did so he ran the risk of losing his life, and the laws of Turkey allowed the death penalty to be enforced upon all apostates from Islam. To-day such lands as Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, have entered into a new liberty where a man may adopt any faith he wishes. The immediate result has been to make these lands really accessible to the Gospel, and inquirers are reported in many areas by the missionaries. The war threw the Moslem world into direct contact with the West in a way nothing hitherto had ever done. The Moslems of India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and North Africa, fought side by side with British and French troops, and this in itself was an education to many thousands of Moslems who carried to their homes new impressions of 20 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD the non-Moslem world. The effect of the war upon Islam is too big a subject to enlarge upon in this report. It has already been referred to in Chapter I., but it must be em- phasized again that in 1918, when the Armistice was signed, all the sacred cities of Islam (with the exception perhaps of Constantinople) had passed out of the control of Turkey. Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina were freed from Ottoman control, and the dream of a Pan- Islamism uniting Moslems the world over was shattered. Mustapha Kemal Pasha dealt a further blow at orthodox Islam by the overthrow of the Sultan and the abolition of the Caliphate. The demand for modern laws and a pro- gressive policy in Turkey cut across many cherished tra- ditions of Islam and placed nationality above religion. A new nationalism developed in Turkey and Egypt. Even the Arabs moved towards an Arab nationalism that would weld together the scattered and divided tribes of Arabia and Mesopotamia. Demand for education.—Arising out of these changes came a new demand for education. In every Moslem land education is being actively promoted by government and literacy is rapidly in- creasing. The rising generation is steadily gaining an entirely new outlook because the newspaper, the cinema, the theatre, and modern pictorial advertising, have created a thousand points of contact with western civilization, and all this tends to disintegrate old Islamic standards and ideals,* and to make a highway for the Gospel. Perhaps the most striking feature in the new situation has been the demand in various Islamic lands by the edu- cated Moslem women for emancipation, nor has this been simply a political agitation. There has been a genuine and honest endeavour by many Moslem women of culture in Egypt to improve the social conditions of their poorer * Conference of Christian Workers among Moslems, p. 15. OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD pal sisters. Societies have been formed for work among the ignorant and illiterate classes. These women feel, however, that they are blocked in their efforts by the laws which allow many evil practices to continue. They have therefore thrown themselves into politics to secure new legislation. They demand monogamy, and the same right of women to claim divorce as the law allows to men. They seek to abolish the law by which a man can, by the bare repetition of a formula, divorce his wife. In Turkey women are discarding the veil, appearing in public, earning their own living in banks and offices, and attending schools and colleges where they compete on equal terms with the men in examinations. They are now seeking votes for women, and in all Moslem lands they are an influence to be reckoned with. They have already accomplished much. A new law on marriage was prepared in 1924 by a special commission in Constantinople by which marriage could not take place before men were eighteen years of age and women seventeen. For a marriage earlier than this the court must give special permission. Mono- gamy is made the general rule unless necessity of marriage with a second wife is proved and the ability of the husband to treat both wives fairly and equally is established. In this case the court may give permission for a man to marry two wives, otherwise polygamy is forbidden. The wife can sue her husband for a divorce on the grounds of desertion, cruelty, and misconduct, or if she discovers after marriage that he is already married. III These movements briefly outlined above are more fully described in The Moslem World in Revolution, and the reader is referred to this book for more detailed information. Arising out of these changes we notice the following facts : 1. The breakdown of Islam in the face of nationalism. The nationality movements in Islam have created a ferment 22 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD that has changed the outlook of the people, altered their beliefs in many respects, opened their minds to new and non-Moslem impressions and overthrown much that was viewed but a few years ago as a permanent element in Islam. Out of it is arising, among the educated classes, a new Islam which aims at the adaptation of the Moslem faith to modern requirements. This new type is represented by the Moslems of Woking and Putney in England, and Moslems of similar views are to be found in many parts of the Islamic world. 2. We notice the failure of Islam as a system in the face of social and other influences from the West. The demands for progress, liberty, and the emancipation of women, are a revolt against the laws of the Koran and Mohammed. This was clearly seen in the revolt in Kurdistan, where the Kurds made their appeal by battle for the restoration of the faith of Islam in Turkey, for the imposing of the veil for women again, and the reintroduction of the religious laws. It may be argued that this movement for reform is but the old faith on the road at last to modern progress and development, and therefore it is the success of Islam that we see it adapting itself to modern requirements when faced by western influences. It would be more true to say that it is the success of a body of Moslems, open minded enough to violate Koranic law, and independent enough to tread the road of progress rather than be fettered by seventh- century religious legislation. Islam, as a system, is based on the Koran, and is, for those who hold the orthodox belief in Koranic infallibility, unalterable. ‘The present movement for women’s emancipa- tion, for example, is the direct outcome of western contacts, and it is in defiance of the teaching of the Koran. Lord Cromer, in his Modern Egypt, says, ‘Islam reformed is Islam no longer.’ This is literally true of the Islam of the Koran and traditions, and it is correct to say that Islam as a system has broken down. It has proved unable to meet modern requirements, and reforms have to be carried OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 23 through in the teeth of strenuous opposition from the de- fenders of the faith. | 3. Further, we notice the abandonment of the tra- ditionalism of the past by those who accept western educa- tional standards. Education on western lines is in great demand in most Moslem countries, and the old outlook and attitude is giving place to a new tolerance which is of remarkable significance to the whole missionary cause. From nearly every part of the field we have reports of a responsive spirit, a new willingness to hear the Gospel message, and much less antagonism than in former days. The number of inquirers are increasing everywhere, and public baptisms are not only possible but more frequent among the educated classes, especially the young men. Some have lost their moorings and are adrift on a sea of unbelief; with others there is an eager and intelligent spirit of inquiry in regard to religion. Now is the supreme opportunity for winning these future leaders for Christ.* IV In the appendix we give a list of countries in Moslem lands, showing the proportion of Moslems to people of other religious faiths. ‘This should be studied in connection with the map if the reader is to grasp the extent of Mohammedan- ism as a world religion. The tourist travelling from Paris to Constantinople by the Orient express would pass through the Balkan States and Turkey in Europe with a Moslem population of 34 million. Were he to travel through Asia Minor to Syria and Palestine he would find Islam predominant everywhere. By motor he could continue his journey to Baghdad and Persia, and throughout the whole of the tour he would see only small minorities of non-Moslems. He would see Islam, powerful, predominant everywhere, and because he would be restricted to motor routes he would miss Turkestan, Bokhara, and the * 0.C.W.M., p. 15. 24. THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD mass of Moslems in Central Asia. In India he would see Islam, although in the minority, yet with over 69 million adherents to its faith. In north-west China again, to his surprise, he would discover mosques—for instance, in Peking and other leading cities—and about 8 million of the people followers of Mohammed. Thus there would grow up in his mind the picture of a solid mass of Moham- medan opinion stretching from Northern Africa, through Morocco, Tripoli, Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, to the confines of China and India. A further survey would reveal great areas in this belt entirely untouched by the missionary enterprise. Speaking generally, Arabia is still unoccupied, and in parts is a closed land to the Gospel, though a heroic band of missionaries from America are seeking to enter via the Persian Gulf, and the Keith Falconer Mission of the United Free Church of Scotland is doing a good work in and around Aden. There are many parts of Central Asia with no witness for the Gospel, and Afghanistan is another example of a closed land. Shrouded in mystery and hidden behind the Himalaya mountains, Afghanistan touches Russia, India, Persia and China. The land is full of political significance. Its people are virile and strong. New movements are stirring in the country. A young Afghan party is seeking to modernize everything, but the fanaticism of the old orthodox sect is very strong, and recently Moslems accused of heresy were stoned to death. The Church has no witness in all this land, and the only influence for the Gospel is indirectly through such mission stations as those of the C.M.S. and the C.E.Z.M.S. in the North-West Frontier Province of India, and through the American missionaries on the Afghan borders of Persia. It is humiliating to find that in addition to these two outstanding cases of unoccupied areas there is practically no missionary work of our Church, and scarcely any by other bodies, going on in Russian Turkestan, parts of Siberia, Bokhara, among the Moslem populations of Madagascar, OPEN DOORS IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 25 Albania and Bulgaria, in Tripoli, the French Sudan, the central populous mountain region of Morocco, and the vast Sahara. ‘The unoccupied fields have a total population of approximately 36 million.’ The Mohammedans of China proper number from 8 to 10 million, and there is scarcely a missionary devoting himself entirely to this important people. The China Inland Mission is taking up the matter, and hopes to set free some of its missionaries for Moslem work mainly in the north-west, but Anglican societies working in China have no work among the Mohammedans, and at present see no chance of tackling this problem.* Yet in China the Moslems in some areas are more friendly than other Chinese. They frequently invite missionaries to preach in their mosques, and there is a spirit of inquiry among them. They are open to-day to the Gospel. Mentally alert to the extra- ordinary changes taking place, they are friendly towards the missionaries. Here is an open door where the Church of England has great commitments, and yet not a single missionary from all the Anglican societies together can be spared to enter in and buy up the opportunity. It is equally astonishing that the Moslem population of India is largely an unevangelized field. With a Moslem population of 69 million little specialized work is done by the societies for Moslem India. When we remember that there are over 5000 missionaries in India it is startling to note that scarcely 100 of them are specializing on Moslem work, although the Moslems are one-fifth of the total popu- lation, and an adequate proportion of the missionary staff available for India should be roughly 1000. Yet another and equally serious fact emerges. There are large cities like Lucknow, Delhi, and Lahore, in which formerly there were special efforts to win Moslems, but now this work has largely lapsed, and work among Moslems in India to-day is considerably less than it was some years ago. Surely the * See Report of the Commission on The Call from the Far East, pp. 3), 32. 26 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Church is sowing for itself the seeds of future trouble if she builds up a native Church from every other community in India and leaves this strong aggressive and anti-Christian force unevangelized. In this chapter we have studied Islam under many aspects. We have seen something of changes and oppor- tunities. A note of urgency has more than once been sounded. The present accessibility to the Church may pass away and the opportunity be lost. The facts given here will stand out in striking contrast with the reports on India and Africa, and perhaps the most startling thing will be the fact that while missionary work in mass move- ment areas has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams, and while pagan Africa has been in great areas evangelized, the Moslem world has been to a large extent neglected. In earlier days the time may not have been ready for an advance in Moslem work, but no such argument will hold good to-day. Now is the day of opportunity when the Church must face the Moslem situation. CHAPTER III THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD A stupy of the Church in the Moslem world from the early days of Islamic expansion shows that God has never left Himself without a witness, and here and there during the past thousand years we catch glimpses of noble efforts to bring the Gospel to Mohammedans and of martyrs to the faith in eastern lands. The Eastern Churches can tell of a long line of men and women who counted not their lives dear unto them and died rather than deny their faith, and they also have records of many Mohammedans converted to Christ. In Spain, for example, in the ninth century, when the Moors were in occupation of the country and many Christians lost their lives, Church history tells of converts from Islam who sealed their new faith by martyrdom. Raymond Lull is an outstanding instance of a man who with prophetic foresight saw what the neglect of Islam by the Church would mean. He lived (1235-1315) in the days of the Crusades, and wrote : I see many knights going to the Holy Land thinking they can acquire it by force of arms, but it seems to me that the conquest of the Holy Land ought not to be attempted except in the way Thou and Thine apostles acquired it, namely, by love and prayers and the pouring out of tears and blood. Lull spent many years trying to rouse the Church to a sense of responsibility and completely failed to obtain any response to his appeals. Faithful himself to the call of God and true to his ideals he set sail for North Africa and 27 28 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD preached the Gospel to Mohammedans. A small band of converts gathered round him. He was driven out of Africa and barely escaped with his life. Undaunted and an old man of eighty years he again took ship for Africa. At first he preached secretly, and was rejoiced to find his converts still faithful. At last, feeling bolder methods were neces- sary, he stood before the Moslems publicly and proclaimed his faith. The wrath and anger of a fanatical people was aroused. Lull was dragged outside the town of Bugia and there stoned to death. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Mongol conquests were sweeping all before them. The Church had a golden opportunity of winning this great race for Christianity. ‘The Mongols had no prejudice against Christianity and they evidently preferred it at first to Islam.’ H. G. Wells says: In no case did Christianity succeed in capturing the imagination of these Mongol states. Christianity was in a phase of moral and intellectual insolvency without any collective faith or energy. When at last the Church was reunited and necessary energy returned with the foundation of the order of Jesuits the day of opportunity was over. The possibility of a world-wide moral unification of East and West through Christianity had passed away. The Mongols in China and Central Asia turned to Buddhism. In South Russia and Turkestan they embraced Islam.* The Church has ever since suffered for her neglect and the opportunity lost never came again. One fact that emerges clearly to-day is that the Church is again faced with a day of opportunity, similar in many respects to the open door of the fourteenth century. Will she now respond ? Modern missions to Moslems may be said to date from the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Henry Martyn sailed in 1805 for India. It is a far cry from * The Outline of History, H. G. Wells, p. 379. THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 29 the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, but if any one wishes to know what the neglect of Islam has meant to the Church let him study the history of these intervening five hundred years. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought Islam into Europe again, and the West was menaced down to the seventeenth century by an Islamic invasion that threatened to engulf the whole of Europe. Henry Martyn was forbidden to land in India as a missionary, and went out as a chaplain. With far-seeing vision be began the translation of the scriptures, and thus laid the founda- tions of all future missionary enterprise. There has been a long succession of missionaries since then to Moslem lands, and to-day most of the strategic centres of Islam have been occupied with varying success. The object of this chapter is to show the Church at work to-day, and in order to make clear the task to which the Anglican Church is committed we will deal with it country by country, ‘beginning at Jerusalem.’ The Holy Land.—Anglican missionary work began through the Church Missionary Society in Palestine in 1851 in response to an invitation given by Bishop Gobat. Re- strictions against Christianity were so severe that efforts were confined to educational and medical work. Schools were eventually opened in all the main centres and hospitals were founded in Gaza, Nablus, Jaffa, and Es-Salt in Trans- jordania. Bishop Blyth extended Anglican missionary work through the Jerusalem and the East Mission, which he founded. The Bishop in Jerusalem administers this work directly, and in a number of ways it touches Moslems, mainly through a hospital and schools at Haifa, and at St. George’s Boys’ School in Jerusalem. Prior to 1914 the Moslem law of apostasy was in opera- tion, and no convert to Christianity could live in Palestine without serious risk of losing his life. There was a steady stream of converts as a result of missionary efforts, but almost all of them had to flee for their lives to Egypt. 30 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD There were few railways, scarcely any good roads, and no motors in the country, before the war. Turkey had no educational policy for Palestine, and the Church had to a large extent the education of the country in her hands. The Greek and Latin Churches had schools mainly for the people of their own Churches. The witness of the Church to Islam in Palestine was confined largely to the activities of the Anglican Church, most of which were carried on through the agency of the C.ML.S. Since the war many changes have taken place in the Holy Land. Under a British mandate the country has been opened up, a government education scheme com- menced, railways built, and new roads made, which link up for motor transport all the main centres of the country. The overthrow of the Turks has also brought with it a new liberty of conscience, and the law of apostasy has dis- appeared. Converts can now confess their new faith without the haunting fear of death. A changed post-war outlook has given the Moslems a new toleration towards Christianity, and there are many signs that the old fanaticism is dis- appearing, and that many are studying anew the claims of Christianity. Missionary work since the war is confined on the Anglican side to the C.M.S. and the Jerusalem and the East Mission among the Moslems, and the Church Mission to Jews among the Jewish population. The C.M.S. has a staff of sixty-three European missionaries and a large band of native agents. It is working in fifteen main stations and is responsible for the upkeep of five hospitals. Its boys’ school in Jerusalem, the Bishop Gobat School, has exercised in the past, and continues to exercise a profound influence in the country. | The Jerusalem and the East Mission is doing an important work through the St. George’s School, and is seeking in many ways for more direct contacts with Mohammedans. The bishop has a scheme for the appointment to one of the canonries of the Cathedral of a Moslem expert who would help in the co-ordination of Moslem work in the diocese. THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD aw! A most hopeful side of the work is the growing spirit of co-operation among all missionary agencies. Two large educational institutions, the Jerusalem Girls’ College and the English College for Men, are now run jointly by three co-operating missions, the C.M.S., the J. and E.M., and the C.M.J., and in both these two institutions the Anglican Church is giving a lead to the whole country in both boys’ and girls’ education. Out of these co-operative efforts the next step would appear to be a comprehensive scheme for the diocesanization of all Anglican missionary work in Palestine, centralized under the bishop with a council or synod. The Bishop in Jerusalem has a small work in Syria, including a chaplaincy at Beyrout. Apart from this the Anglican Church has no missionary work north of Nazareth, but other important non-Anglican missions are at work in northern Galilee and throughout Syria. Egypt and the Sudan.—In Egypt, under the leadership of Bishop Gwynne, the Anglican Church has a small but very effective piece of missionary work. The C.M.S. is the only Anglican society in the country, and, with the bishop at its head, its influence is out of all proportion to its numerical strength. Egypt is recognized as one of the main strategic centres of Islam. The Azhar University has about 10,000 students of the old orthodox type. Its curriculum consists mainly in the study of the Koran, Arabic and kindred subjects. Alongside of this modern movements have been developing in recent years, and nationalism is the one burning topic of the day. The government educational system which has developed at a rapid pace in the past twenty years has created a new reading public. This new literacy has created a demand for books of every description. Over 200 printing presses are employed in the production of literature which finds its way into every part of the Arabic- speaking Moslem world. About seventy newspapers are published, and towns like Cairo and Alexandria abound in 32 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD theatres and cinemas. The political independence granted to Egypt has in no way as yet hindered missionary work, and reports from this field show that there are un- limited openings for every form of missionary enterprise. The people are more open-minded and ready to listen to the preaching than they have ever been before, and there is slowly being built up a small native Church of Moslem converts. Egypt is not only the cultural centre of Islam, but also the home of new thought, a modern outlook, and social reforms which are altering many of the old customs and beliefs of Mohammedans. The present C.M.S. mission in Egypt was started in 1882 and has steadily grown ever since. In Old Cairo the medical mission has increased rapidly till it has become one of the largest and most efficient mission hospitals in the world. It has proved to be of national importance in the relief of suffering. The campaign against the national scourge of ankylostomiasis (hook-worm disease) has assumed such immense proportions that during the past twenty years over 100,000 patients of the peasant type suffering from this disease have been treated and sent back absolutely cured. On the evangelistic side it has opened doors for the missionary in every part of the country. About a thousand towns and villages are reached with the Gospel annually through this agency. Medical work has now extended into the provinces. A hospital on the same lines as that in Old Cairo is developing at Menouf, and already it has a ring of five medical outstations round it. A large primary and secondary school for boys with a hostel for boarders is doing good work in Old Cairo, and there are other schools in Cairo and in the provinces of Menoufia. There are sixty- four missionaries on the staff of the mission and a large body of native workers. The present School of Oriental Studies was started by a C.M.S. clergyman to equip missionaries more thoroughly for their task. This work grew until it was used by many missions as a training ground, and eventually it was enlarged THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD oo eFe and run jointly by all societies in co-operation. Mission- aries from other lands are now coming to Cairo for special study in Islamics, and many distant parts of the Moslem world are represented among the pupils in the school. So successful has this co-operative scheme proved itself that a further plan is now under consideration for the formation of a literature bureau in Cairo, with which various non-Anglican missions would co-operate. The idea is to study the output of literature in all Moslem lands and to make available the best books of any one country for all. This involves a considerable staff of trained experts, and the C.M.S. has lent to the bureau the Rev. Canon W. H. T. Gairdner and Miss Constance E. Padwick, its two mission- aries best qualified for this task. The §8.P.C.K. has generously come forward with a grant of £500 per annum to be administered in literature production by two committees under the leadership of the Bishop in Jerusalem and the Bishop in Egypt. These committees will co-operate with the literature bureau. Any Church policy for Islam must place literature in the very forefront of its programme. The new literacy among Moslems and the spread of western books make it imperative that the Church should use this method to the full and give every assistance possible to all Moslem missionaries in the study and use of literature. The Report of the Jerusalem Conference of Workers among Moslems (1924), referring to literature, says : There is clear and universal testimony that the present situation in the Moslem world creates a need for literature as a dynamic and penetrating instrument of Christian educational evangelism altogether without parallel in range of urgency in the literary history of these people. While C.M.S. commitments in this task of literature for Moslems are at present far greater than all other Anglican societies, yet this is not a call that can be met by any one society alone. It demands a full contribution by all 37 34 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Anglican societies working in fields where there are Moslem populations. It is only as the whole Church in full co- operation supports them in this task that the need can be met. This work involves the production of literature at once high in standard and graded to meet the requirements of varied types of readers throughout the Moslem world. For further information on this subject the reader should consult Christian Interature in Moslem Lands. But it must be noted that the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the 8.P.C.K., and other similar organizations, is absolutely vital to the successful evangelization of the Moslem world. From Egypt, Anglican missionary work through the C.M.S. has spread to the Northern Sudan where the popula- tion is almost entirely Moslem. A hospital has been estab- lished at Omdurman, and girls’ schools at Atbara, Khartoum, Wad Medani, and Omdurman. It would probably have been of infinite service to the State as well as to the Church had boys’ schools been established also, but this was not possible. For years work in the Sudan has been an uphill and difficult task, but recently there have been encouraging signs of a changed attitude on the part of the Moslems. The hospital has won a unique place in the hearts of the people, and the girls’ schools have done much to educate the rising generation on great social evils. The work, however, is small, poorly staffed, and crippled for lack of adequate financial backing. For the Church to maintain any real witness in this very important section of the Moslem world the present staff ought to be at least doubled and the grants correspondingly raised. New developments in the Northern Sudan are altering the face of the country. New railways and roads are being opened up and with the completion of the great dam at Makwar on the Blue Nile the land lying between the two branches of the Nile from Khartoum to south of Wad Medani is becoming one vast cotton field. At one end of this area is a C.M.S. station, Wad Medani, and at the other THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 35 the C.M.S. centres at Khartoum and Omdurman. This newly-populated land in between is unevangelized. No missionary work is going on, and given an adequate staff it would form the natural line of growth of missionary work from the C.M.S. centres at both the northern and southern ends. We are of opinion that the C.M.S. Mission in the Sudan should be strengthened and extended with all possible expedition. Other parts of Africa.—Having set foot in Egypt we are faced with the whole problem of the Church in Africa, but we are reminded that this report must be strictly limited to where our Church touches Islam, or where Islam impinges upon the Church. The Anglican Church is unrepresented as a witness to Moslems throughout North Africa, with, of course, the exception of Egypt, and the Northern Sudan (we look upon Northern Nigeria as being in the southern half of Africa). Reference has been made in a previous chapter to the war in Morocco, and it will help us in the formation of a Church policy if we can grasp the significance of Islam in Africa, and to do this we must turn our attention to Morocco. Most Moslem countries are helping Abdel Krim in his fight for independence there, and every phase of the war is closely followed from day to day all over the Moslem world. The war is discussed in Calcutta, Cairo, Con- stantinople, and Mecca and Damascus, all of which have a stake in its success or failure. The interest for Moslems lies in the fact that it is an effort to win independence from European domination. Moslems feel that what Abdel Krim says to-day Africa may say to-morrow, and when we look at the determined efforts to make Islam the one dominant faith throughout Africa we begin to realize something of Moslem policy. Islam is attacking Africa from the north south, east, and west. The Church also is seeking to spread Christianity from these same angles, and there is going on now a struggle for the capture of the pagan for Christ or Mohammed. 36 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD There can be no doubt that for Africa the problem still is Islam or Christianity. If Africa is opening up to the messengers of the Gospel it is equally opening to Islam. The dark continent is no longer a mere coast line on the map. It is covered with a network of railways and motor-car routes and waterways which are being increasingly made navigable. Whole districts which once were inaccessible have been thrown open to contact with Europe and western civilization, and also to the evangelizing zeal of Moham- medan traders and others. These new highways are equally highways for the Gospel and Islam. Islam has penetrated into Africa in many ways. In the early days it was through the sword, the slave traffic, and the itinerant trader, but most powerful as a means of penetration have been the Moslem brotherhoods, who have obliterated in many areas the memory of the horrors of the slave trade and have offered a new social status to the natives who have embraced Islam. Investigation at this point shows that the Mohammedan advance has been checked where Christianity has become established. The natives themselves in such areas have come to see that Islam does very much less for them morally and spiritually than Christianity. It should be carefully noted and broadcasted throughout the Church that given the existence of vital Christian work, Moham- medanism does not stand a chance with the African. This does not, however, mean that we can afford to neglect Islam in order to concentrate our efforts upon purely pagan work. Let us think for a moment of the unevangelized areas of Africa. In Senegal in French Africa to-day there are 833,000 Moslems and only 321,000 pagans. The Moslems are thus in a great majority, and probably it will not be long before the whole of Senegal has accepted Islam. In French Guinea there are said to be 316,000 pagans on the road to Islam, and 656,000 of the population already Moslem. On the Ivory Coast, which is also French territory, there are 100,000 Moslems, in Dahomey 62,000, and in the THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD oui Niger Colony (French) nearly half the population are already Mohammedan. More significant still is the fact that these Moslem communities are often in touch with Islam in India and elsewhere, and the next stage will be a growth in the spirit of nationalism, and a nationalism on Islamic lines. The Church in Africa is faced with a threefold task : 1. The evangelization of the pagans. 2. The evangelization of the Mohammedans. 3. The building up of native Churches so strong and virile that they will be able to stand upon their own feet. The question before us is whether Islam is central to this task, whether it can be left alone at present, or whether our policy should include the definite aim of checking the spread of Islam in Africa. The Churches of Africa cannot be left uninstructed about Islam, and a sense of responsi- bility towards the Mohammedans should be fostered. This will lead to a study of Islam. It will put simple church- people of the child races on their guard against the efforts of Moslem missionaries, and further, it will lead them out to direct evangelization among Moslems as well as pagans. From information before us it is apparent that this subject has not yet received the attention it should. Special literature is needed, and a good beginning has already been made by the U.M.C.A. in this respect. As a matter of policy the Church cannot afford to build up African Christian communities and leave unsolved the Moslem problem. Strategically it is unsound to neglect so aggressive a people and to leave them to make their own impact upon a young Christian Church, which may be totally unequipped both in literature and training for the contest. The main centres of tropical Africa are occupied by the Church. ‘The work in many areas has been unified through diocesanization, and the present available resources are sufficient to make a great advance in Moslem evangelization, if the Moslem question is treated seriously and given a position of primary importance in the present situation. 38 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Our policy, therefore, should be to strengthen direct missions to Moslems in Africa, to take steps to educate the native Churches through some concerted scheme, and to produce the literature needed for the purpose, and to develop as strongly as possible the existing work among pagans in order to build up an increasingly effective bulwark against Islamic aggression. The commitments of missionary societies in Africa will be dealt with in another report. We emphasize here the fact that from the north Islam is spreading through the Sudan, and the C.M.S. mission in the Southern Sudan is hopelessly weak at present and unable with its present staff to stem the tide. Unless this mission can be greatly strengthened we see no hope of preventing ultimately a solid mass of Mohammedanism right up to the borders of Uganda, and who can say what this may mean to the growing native Church there? Converging on Central Africa is an Islamic impact from the west. In Nigeria there are already nine million Moslems. In Northern Nigeria Christian missions are practically shut out and pagan tribes in Moslem Emirates are exposed to Moslem propaganda without any corresponding Christian mission. This is not because the missionary societies have not realized the danger. It is a matter of common knowledge that the C.M.S. has for years now been trying effectively to enter this Moslem field in Northern Nigeria, but for one reason or another the British Government has been less sympathetic to missionary enterprise here than in any other British territory. The future will reveal whether this government policy has been right or wrong. There is little doubt among those missionaries best qualified to form an opinion that even from a purely administrative point of view govern- ment has made a mistake, but it is not the task of this report to go into the rights and wrongs of this at times rather hotly debated question. From the east Islam is cutting deep into Africa. In Zanzibar and Tanganyika territory there are a million and a half Moslems. In Nyasaland Islam is spreading through an THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 39 aggressive method of education by means of mosque schools. A revival of Islamic activity is reported from South Africa where a number of Christians have embraced Islam because they claim to find in it a truer brotherhood than in Christianity. Round the whole of the African continent Islam is established, and is penetrating into the interior. With this survey we must couple the fact that the African is awake to-day. He is watching the trend of events. At present there is no doubt that on the whole Christianity is in the ascendency, but the Church must face fearlessly the problems of Islam in Africa now, or else suffer disaster in days to come. Incidentally an Islamized Africa would be a set-back not only to the Church but to the whole civilized world. Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia.—In our study of Anglican commitments we pass from the Near East through Arabia and Mesopotamia to Persia. Arabia is untouched by the Anglican Church except indirectly through the C.M.S. stations of Transjordania. Amman is on the Mecca railway, and many Arabs from the closed areas of the Hedjaz come for treatment to the C.M.S. woman doctor stationed there. She has unique openings among the nomad Arab tribes, but surely there is something wrong either in missionary policy or else, what is more probable, in the spirit and consecration of the home Church which gives or withholds the power by which missionary societies make their policies effective, when the Church leaves the door to Arabia to be occupied simply by one heroic woman. Amman is growing in import- ance, and if the Church is to use this centre, strategic in many ways, and unique in its situation, a better staff should be found immediately, and workers sent out to strengthen the hands of the solitary missionary at present standing alone as a witness for the Church in the face of half Arabia. Persia has a population of ten million, all of whom (with 40 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD the exception of 100,000 who are Parsis, Christians, or Jews) are Moslems. About a million including the Kurds on the Turkish borders are Sunnis or orthodox Moslems, while the rest are Shiahs. The difference between these two great rival sects of Islam is not simply one of theology. It is also one of temperament and outlook. The Shiah tends towards the Sufi form of mysticism. He emphasizes experience in religion, and on the mystical side his life is one long quest for God. This has made the Persian more approachable than other Moslems. There is a strong national movement of which the recent deposition of the Shah is a symptom, and which may culminate in a more progressive government, and there is a tendency to regard Persia’s greatness as pre- Islamic, and to throw the blame for modern decadence on Islam. ‘Through education the Persians have reacted against Arab influence, and many seek to-day to get away from the Koran and the traditions as out of date and unsuited to modern requirements. The trend of religious thought is seen in the spread of Bahaism, a development of the earlier Babist movement. It is a revolt against the exclusiveness of Islam and has a strong following. ‘The Bahais teach the universal brother- hood of man. They are friendly, courteous, and open- minded. They read the Bible freely and use it constantly in their teaching. This new faith emphasizes the value of education and champions the cause of sex equality. It is well organized and equipped with a wide range of literature. The Anglican missionary work in Persia was started in 1869 by the Rev. R. Bruce, and was taken over by the C.M.S. in 1875. By an inter-mission agreement American missions are working in the northern half of the country and the C.M.S. in the southern. The C.M.S. has a staff of forty-nine European missionaries stationed at Isfahan, Yezd, Kerman, and Shiraz. Bishop Linton is the head of the work, and he writes : The most hopeful and at the same time perplexing feature of the work just now is, I think, the growing THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 4] national consciousness of the Persian, including the Persian Christian. We have a baby Christian news- paper run by a Persian Christian. It is only cyclo- styled and consists of one foolscap sheet, but it is giving the Church a voice wherewith to express itself. The last issue was full of hope. I feel that one of the most important contributions we can make to the Persian Church is in the way of full education of the Christian community. We are doing it splendidly for boys in the Stuart Memorial College and in Kerman, but we need a girls’ school with a hostel in Isfahan. We simply must have a divinity school for training evange- lists and catechists. The very life of the Church depends on it. No Anglican sphere in Islamic lands is so promising as Persia. In the early days of the work there was bitter opposition and the little Church has exhibited a noble courage. The old Moslem law of apostasy used to be applied to converts, but in recent years, although it has never been rescinded, it has become largely a dead letter. This changed attitude of the people, who show an increasing friendliness to the missionaries, is partly due to the spread of Bahaism with its teaching of tolerance. Converts are rapidly on the increase, and already the Anglican Church has over four hundred baptized members from Islam. One missionary wrote recently that it is only the lack of men and funds that prevents a mass movement in Persia. This may be an exaggeration, but if there is even the remotest possibility of it occurring the Church is faced with a grave responsibility. At the present time the labours of fifty years in Persia are bearing fruit, and there is certainly promise of a great harvest. The country itself is in transition, and Bolshevism is making a strenuous bid for favour. Feminist movements are strong, and at least three papers are edited by women. The country cannot remain for ever in its present state of ferment. It may be captured by anti-Christian forces, or it may find the realiza- tion of its highest ideals and spiritual aspirations in the 42 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD hope of the Gospel. Which it will be depends very largely upon the response of the Anglican Church to the present world call. Malaysia.—The problem of Islam in the Malaysia, as it affects the work of the Anglican Church, has been brought forcibly before the commission in a memorandum re- ceived from the Bishop of Singapore. In British Malaysia the Mohammedan population is given at 1,800,000. In Sumatra, of a population of six million, about four million are Mohammedan. In Java thirty-four million out of a total of thirty-five million are Moslems. These figures will help us to see the enormous Moslem population in the Malay States, mainly under the Dutch government, but partly under the British. Singapore is therefore the centre of one of the largest Mohammedan areas of the world. The Bishop writes :— The Church of England, which has missions to Moslems on the North-West Frontier of India, North India, West India, South India (Deccan), and Persia, has never had a single ordained man or catechist for work among Mohammedans in the Diocese of Singapore! ... As the vast majority of those who live within the limits of the Diocese of Singapore are Moslems, it is my duty to point out that, however difficult the approach to Islam is, there lies upon the English Church a duty to attempt to make Christ known to Moslems. The idea of a new attempt to bring the Gospel to Moslems has been put prominently before the English Church this year (1925) by Dr. Zwemer. I trust that the idea will be taken up and that a start will be made in the Diocese of Singapore as well as in other parts of the world. For this the minimum staff to begin the work would be four priests and two lady workers. The whole cost (including a year’s study of Arabic and Moslem theology in England or elsewhere) would have to be borne by missionary societies in Hngland. It is a matter for which practically no financial support at the present time could be found in the Diocese of Singapore, important THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 43 though it is for the extension of the kingdom of God. While the average population of an Indian diocese is twenty-seven million, and the average population of a Chinese diocese is thirty-six million, the actual population of the Diocese of Singapore is fifty million. Can the Missionary Council of the National Assembly realize what that means in opportunity ? It is interesting to note while this powerful appeal from the Bishop of Singapore is before us, that the German and Dutch missions in Java and Sumatra have for years been building up a Church from Islam. They record the greatest number of converts from among the Moslems of any mission in the world. The figures given are about 45,000 baptized Moslem converts, and the outlook is very hopeful for a still greater advance. Difficulties in the Malay Peninsula may be greater, but were the bishop’s appeal followed up a real impression might be made on Islam among the Malays. It is difficult to over-estimate the opportunity, but can the Church estimate at all her responsibility in facing it ? India.—The Church in no other part of the Moslem world is faced with so heavy a task as in India, not only because nearly one-third of the world’s Moslem population live in India, but also because of the immense influence Indian Islam has upon its own and other lands. The national life of India is bound up with Islam. The Caliphate movement has brought India into the politics of the Near East. Indian colonists have carried their faith to many parts of the world. There are, for example, 60,000 Asiatics in East Africa alone, of whom a large part are Indian Moslems. Indian sects such as the Ahmadiya have carried their propaganda across three continents and are seeking the conversion of England to Islam through Moslem missions at Woking and Putney. Moslem literature from India is to be found in bookshops all over the world and Moslem missionaries have established mosques in Trinidad and Lagos, in Peking and other centres in China. Islam in 44 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD India is the only force that is seriously contesting with Christianity the capture of the outcastes. Fifty million people seeking emancipation from virtual slavery find two great doors open to them, the one leading to Islam and the other to Christianity. Islam challenges the Christian’s claim to hold the one thing the outcastes need, and in recent years Islamic activities have been redoubled in this direction with considerable success. Only recently has the Hindu religion through the Arya Samaj entered into competition. There are five sections in the vast area of North India— the Punjab, Kashmir, the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, and Sindb, in all of which the Anglican Church is represented on its missionary side. The C.M.S. has about one hundred European missionaries at work in this part of North India, about twenty Indian clergymen and about three hundred Christian lay agents, but very few of these are specializing on Moslem work. The C.EH.Z.M.S. is also working in these areas among the women. It has ten whole-time women missionaries and twenty-two engaged part time in Moslem work, and thirteen medical women doing some work for Mohammedans. The North-West Frontier Province is almost entirely Moslem, and medical work is carried on by C.M.S. at the three strategic centres, Peshawar, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khan, at the entrance to three of the most important passes into Afghanistan. These stations have been looked upon for years as the advanced outposts for the ultimate penetration into Afghanistan with the Gospel, and although this hope of advance has been long deferred, these hospitals have treated many thousands of Afghans, so that indirectly the Gospel has reached many from this land which is so rigidly closed to Christian enterprise. The awakening in Afghanistan through the new demand for education, the activities of a Young Afghan Movement, and the gradual impression made upon the country by western thought and civilization all go to show that the day may not be THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 45 far distant when Christ shall be preached in Afghanistan itself. The hospitals on the frontier have done an immense service in paving the way for future advance, but they are all seriously understaffed and medical recruits are very badly needed. Five C.E.Z.M.S. missionaries are working in co-operation with the C.M.S. on the North-West Frontier. These two societies are the sole missionary representatives of the Anglican Church, and in spite of difficulties they are seeing fruit. The nucleus of an Afghan Church is already in being, from which at least two members have been ordained. There is very little missionary work of other communions in this part of India, and where such exists it has usually resulted as an invitation from the C.M.S. to undertake work which owing to shortage of money and workers it would have had to close down. Kashmir with seventy-seven per cent. of the population Moslem touches the frontiers of Afghanistan, Russia, and China. Only a small proportion of the boys in the C.M.S. boys’ school at Srinagar are Moslems, but the Moslems are reached through the hospitals at Srinagar and Islamabad. This latter station may have to be closed for lack of funds and with it the women’s hospital, of which Mr. Tyndale- Biscoe writes : Mrs. John Bishop, née Miss Bird, the traveller, started on her travels a disbeliever in foreign missions, but what she saw in Persia and Kashmir changed her views on this subject, and she gave money to build hospitals for women in these two countries, as she realized the great sorrows of their women. In Kashmir, the missionaries were unable to carry out Mrs. Bishop’s wishes as the Maharajah would not grant land on which to build the hospital, until in 1890 Lord Roberts visited Kashmir, saw the need, and persuaded the Rajah to give a plot of ground for this women’s hospital. The reason why a hospital for women is more needed in Kashmir than in other countries is the prevalence of osteomalakia—a special cisease of women in Kashmir which prevents them bearing children except 46 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD by an operation, otherwise they must die a most painful death; the early age of consent in Kashmir —ten years—two years lower than in British India, involving the death of many girls unless medical aid is available. The fact is that many males in Kashmir are bipeds only and care nothing for the sufferings of women, whose only hope is the lady doctor. Add to all this, the usual sorrows of the women in the East, with their ignorance and superstition, and the midwives (dhais), unlearned, ignorant women who are responsible for the deaths of scores of women and babies. Itis to save the women from these horrors that lady doctors are so much needed. If you can save the Islamabad Hospital, you will not have been born in vain. The Punjab is an area with great traditions in missionary service among Moslems. The name of Thomas Valpy French stands out. A C.M.S. missionary and first principal of St. John’s College, Agra, French, side by side with Dr. Pfander, conducted the famous debate, which issued in the conversion of Imadud Din, D.D., of Lambeth, the great literary champion of the Church at Amritsar. French was the first Bishop of Lahore, and founder of St. John’s Divinity School, a C.M.S. institution which has sent forth many evangelists to Islam. The Punjab as a Moslem sphere affords many openings to the Church to-day, but no advance in missions to Moslems can be considered by societies unless the Church gives a greatly increased support to this work. It is an interesting fact that out of twenty native clergy on the list of the Punjab and Sindh missions, nine are converts from Islam, or children of such. Here again we touch a point where Moslem evangelization is vital to missionary work as a whole in India. Moslem converts, both clergy and laymen, have taken a great part in the building up of the Church gathered in from Hindus and outcastes as well as Moslems. In fact it is the Moslem converts who have been the chief helpers in dealing with THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 47 the mass movements in the villages of the Punjab. An ex-Moslem doctor is editor of the monthly magazine, which represents the Punjab Christian Association. With few exceptions these converts have been gained in the course of general evangelization, addressed both to Hindus and Mohammedans. The course of national development is likely to make the common appeal to Indians as such still more effective in the future. In all this work, and specially on the literary side, it is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between the operations of the various societies. Often work is done in common, when Anglican and non-Anglican missionaries co-operate, and frequently ‘one soweth and another reapeth.’ A splendid work, for example, is being done by the strong and well-equipped mission of the American Presbyterians in the great Forman Christian College in Lahore: and this mission and other Presbyterian missions, both from America and Scotland, are strongly represented in many parts of the Punjab. Anglican work in Delhi and the south-east part of the Punjab is carried on by the S.P.G. with its affiliated Cambridge University Mission. For many years George Alfred Lefroy, afterwards third Bishop of Lahore, carried on a devoted work among the Delhi Moslems. Some notable converts from Islam were the fruit of this, but for some years now little emphasis has been placed on the Moslem side of the work. The report of this mission comes under the survey of the commission dealing with India. Lucknow, Agra and Aligarh have all seen fruit from work amongst Moslems, but Lucknow has _ been evacuated by the C.M.S., and Aligarh is weakly held. Bengal has a Mohammedan population of over twenty- five million. This is greater than that of Arabia, Egypt, and Persia together, yet there is practically no Anglican work now being done among Moslems, although at one time the C.M.S. in the Nadiya district had something like a small mass movement from Islam to Christianity, the 48 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD results of work during a time of famine. The Baptists are, however, carrying on a vigorous mission to Moslems, and indirectly the work of the C.M.S., S.P.G., and the Oxford Mission reaches a small proportion of the Mohammedan population. This, however, is not due to any organized effort, but to the mixture of religions represented in the institutional work of the Church. In Bombay a mission to Moslems is carried on jointly by the 8.P.G. and the C.M.S. It has been strengthened lately by the appointment to the staff of a C.M.S. Urdu- speaking missionary. In South India there is no direct work among Mohammedans by the Anglican Church apart from that of the C.E.Z.M.S. and a small work of the Australian C.M.S. at Hyderabad. It is clear from this and from other reports that have been received that to-day the Moslems of India are on the whole open minded, easy of access, and ready to listen to any missionary who presents tactfully the claims of Christianity. It is equally clear that only a very few of the many Moslem centres of India are occupied at all, and where the work is strongest it is comparatively weak and in need of immediate reinforcements. Three stations on the North-West Frontier, or a single station in Baluchistan, can hardly be called missionary occupation of such important areas. Bengal is practically untouched, and other provinces are equally neglected. We are forced to ask the question, has the Anglican Church a policy for the evangelization of Moslem India? Frankly it has not, but some strategic centres have been occupied and foundations laid upon which the Church can build to-day. The C.M.S., in conjunction with the C.E.Z.M.S. in the north and the 8.P.G. in Bombay, have made brave efforts to tackle this burden, a very large proportion of which has fallen upon the first-named society. If commitments are to be measured by actual work going on among Moslems, the C.M.S. and the C.E.Z.M.S. certainly stand out beyond THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 49 all others in urgent need of money and missionary recruits. The future policy of the Church for Moslem evangeliza- tion in India will be governed by the available resources, and at present societies are faced with serious reductions in work which make the development of a settled policy almost impossible. Whatever may have to be given up the important centres should be maintained and better staffed, with a view to making them the starting point from which the Indian Church herself some day may advance. It would be impossible to locate experts on Islam in every area, but there should be at least two in each diocese for the co- ordination and guiding of work which touches Islam at any angle. China.—In China, according to the latest reports, there are 7663 missionaries at work. Of these on the Anglican side the C.M.S. has 295, the 8.P.G. sixty-four, and the C.E.Z.M.S. forty-two. They occupy sixty-seven resident stations out of a total for all societies of 1149. Out of the vast population of China some eight million are Moham- ‘medans, mainly in the north-west in the Kansu province. Although Anglican societies have missionaries located in areas where Moslems are living, not a single society reports that it has any work at all for Moslems. Missionaries who come in touch with them find extraordinary openings. They have been invited into mosques to preach and given en- couragement to develop work. Is not this a case where the U.M.C.A. method in Zanzibar might be copied (see Chap. IV, page 58). The cost would be small to societies and with a Church alive to the needs of Moslems much might be accomplished. In any case it would appear unwise to leave the native Churches in Moslem areas without either a sense of responsibility towards Moslems or the necessary literature to equip them for this special work. It is obvious that no satisfactory policy of concentration and development in Moslem work can be devised and 38 50 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD carried out except through cordial co-operation with the Jeaders of other Churches. This is almost automatic in the mission field. It needs further development at home, and such development would involve provision for ready consultation between British and American leaders. England.—lIt is a far cry from China back to London, but we are reminded that in our own land there is a section of the Moslem world. The presence of Mohammedans in our own parishes makes Moslem evangelization a practical possibility. The London City Mission has set aside one of its evangelists for work among Mohammedans at the London docks and a very remarkable work he has done The most important element of our Moslem visitors is the student class. Boys pass through mission schools abroad and come to England and other European countries to finish their educa- tion. 'The number of students from Asia and Africa during the academic year 1924-25 was 6000. From India 1200 came, of whom probably one-fifth were Moslems. Egypt sent 300 of her sons to our universities, the majority of whom were Moslems. These men live under several disabilities. They are cut off from their traditional and cultural back- ground. Thrown into contact with western life they are very self-conscious of physical and racial characteristics, as also any misrepresentation of their own people or religion in newspapers, films, plays, or missionary exhibitions. They often have difficulty in finding suitable accommodation, and cannot understand the aloofness and reserve of British people. They are not brought into sufficient touch with the best in English life, and their estimates of the West are often based upon what they see of the worst evils of our big cities. It can hardly be surprising that many of these men return home with distorted and even grotesque ideas of this country. A young student returned to Egypt just before the out- break in 1919. He had spent five years in England and only fourteen days in Egypt when he led an attack upon a railway train in which British officers were travelling and THE CHURCH IN THE MOSLEM WORLD 51 took part in the murder of nine Englishmen. In all the five years among us the Church had meant nothing to him, and each year his hatred of England increased until it culminated in a terrible day of bloodshed and murder. Many of these students have some knowledge of Christianity, and the question they are continually asking is, ‘ Does Christianity work ?’ They are influenced mainly by personal contacts with British people. Some are unfortunate and return home embittered, others who have seen something of real home life in England realize that Christianity does make a difference. The presence of these students presents an opportunity to, and imposes an obliga- tion upon, all Christian people, the importance of which cannot be too strongly emphasized. | Church people can help here by cultivating the friendship of these students, inviting them to their homes and making them feel that race is no barrier to those who acknowledge the claims of Christ upon them. In this way the task of the missionary will be made easier when these students return to their own lands, and a valuable contribution will be made to the race problem with which all missionary enterprise is bound up. This chapter so far has dealt almost exclusively with Anglican Church work and policy, but we must not forget that throughout the Moslem world not a little is being done by members of other communions. The Baptist Missionary Society in Bengal, Scottish Presbyterians in India and Arabia, American Presbyterians in Persia and Egypt, Syria and India, the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Africa, the Dutch Reformed Church (American) in Arabia and Mesopotamia, the German and Dutch missions in Java, and the American Congregational Churches in Anatolia, are amongst the activities of non-Anglican work. It is no part of this report to give an account of such missions, but we recognize the immensely important work they are doing, and the spirit of real co-operation that they have always shown in their relationship with Anglican missionaries. 52 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD The British and Foreign Bible Society too must be mentioned. No society or Church could have done the work accomplished without the generous support and unstinted help given in Bible translation and dissemination in Moslem mission areas. The Arabic Bible in good type and at a cheap rate has been one of the triumphs of missionary work in the past twenty-five years, and hundreds of thousands of copies of these and other Scriptures in Moslem tongues have been sold. The Roman Catholic Church is at work in many Moslem lands, but neither statistics nor reports are available upon which to give any adequate account of its important activities. We cannot close the chapter without reference to the Eastern Churches in their relationship to the Moslem problem. No body of people have suffered at the hands of the Moslems in the way the Eastern Churches have. The story of Armenia and Greece alone is sufficient to enable us to understand the difficulty Eastern Church people feel about Islam. ‘Through centuries of persecution there has grown up a hatred of the Turk among our brethren of the Near East that has made missionary work well nigh impossible, even if there had not been a lawin the Turkish empire forbidding Christians to preach the Gospel. For this among other reasons the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem welcomed the appointment of an Anglican bishop in 1887; there are, however, not lacking signs that the Eastern Churches are beginning to feel a new sense of responsibility towards Moslems. Their great contribution hitherto has been to supply missionary societies with workers, many catechists, teachers, hospital nurses, and others doing Moslem work being members of the Eastern Churches. It is no exaggera- tion to say that without this help much of the work carried on would have been almost impossible. CHAPTER IV THE TASK OF THE CHURCH In the previous chapter a survey was made of some of the Church’s activities in Moslem lands. It is clear from what has already been said that the missionary societies of the Church have not only kept alive the witness of the Gospel to Islam, but they literally saved the face of the Church by inspiring faith and unfailing courage at a time when the great mass of Church people were opposed to any attempt to evangelize the world. During the past hundred years each society has built up a work on its own lines, and now after the experience of two or three generations missionaries in the field and the Church at home are feeling the need of much closer co- operation and of some co-ordinating policy so that the Church as a whole may face this great task unitedly. From a study of the work of different societies there emerges the main lines of a central policy. We propose, therefore, to give a brief outline of the policies of the societies as they have been made available for investigation by the commission. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.—The 8.P.G. was one of the pioneers of modern missionary work, and with its many activities both for non-Christians and British people abroad it has never been able to take up extensively work among Moslems. At Delhi and in other parts of India the 8.P.G. touches Moslem life and indirectly it does a good deal for Moslems in India although specialized work is not at present undertaken. In Madagascar the work is entirely among the non-Moslem population, government restrictions 63 54. THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD having made any approach to the Mohammedans impossible. The fact that the Moslems of this important island are — entirely unreached constitutes a challenge to the Church. There is reason to believe that even in Madagascar openings for work among Moslems could be found if the Church made it possible for the 8.P.G. to go forward in this enterprise. It is the S.P.G. that is responsible for dealing with the challenge that comes from the Bishop of Singapore. Here is available an immense and most important field for Moslem work, but there is no possibility of its being able to send to the bishop the workers and the money that he needs, unless there is an immeasurably greater response to the needs of the society on the part of the home Church. The §8.P.G. is deeply impressed with the present oppor- tunity in the Moslem world and a study of the problem has led this society to certain clear conclusions. It is felt that the situation calls for more real experts on Islam, and the 8.P.G. has decided, as their first contribution to the present call, to train and equip a man and possibly a woman for leadership in such work. Such a man must be, it is felt, of outstanding ability, and he must be given the fullest and most varied training possible in the main centres of Islam. For several years he will be released from all other duties in order to study Islamics. To understand the Moslem mind one must be soaked in Moslem thought, theology, traditions, and history. A worker thus trained could later on be located to some important centre where his knowledge and experience would be available for all who are engaged on the same task. Looking at the Moslem world as a whole, this method would seem to be the first step towards the better training of missionaries in all such lands. In every area there should be at least two experts (a man and a woman) who would maintain sympathetic touch with Moslem opinion and who would also be in a position to guide the studies of other missionaries in Islamics. Such a for- ward movement would open up new avenues of approach to Moslems, new methods of work, a new literature of Christian THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 55 doctrine suitable for Moslems and Moslem converts, and new co-operative efforts by all missionaries of different societies in the face of a common task. If the 8.P.G. is enabled to develop this scheme, an incalculable contribution will thus be made to the whole Moslem field. The Church Missionary Society.—The C.M.S. is, as we have already seen, the only Anglican representative among the Moslems of Egypt, the Sudan, Nigeria, and Persia. In other areas such as Palestine, Transjordania, the North- West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, and other parts of our Indian Empire it is doing upwards of seventy-five per cent, of the Anglican missionary work for Mohammedans. From the days of Henry Martyn this society has always maintained a strong policy in regard to Islam, and through the long experience C.M.S. missionaries have gained by direct contact with Moslems further points of general policy are emerging. The literature problem, mentioned in the section under Egypt, is not a question for any one society alone, but is a matter of inter-mission policy. The C.M.S., by setting aside its two greatest experts for the literature bureau, is seeking to serve the whole Moslem world. The possibilities of this scheme are so great that it should be placed in the forefront of any policy the Church may develop. The 8.P.G. and the C.M.S. policies for an advance in Moslem lands are in complete accord. Both societies are seeking for a trained leadership by men and women with wide and expert knowledge, and for a close co-operation that will make the work of each society doubly effective by the help and strength given to it by the other. The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society.— Hitherto in this chapter little has been said about work among women, and it now falls to us to link on the splendid work of the C.E.Z.M.S. with what may possibly be termed a Church policy for women’s work among Moslems. The C.E.Z.M.S8. is carrying on work in conjunction with the C.M.S. missionaries in India in Bengal, the Punjab, the North-West Frontier, Central Provinces, Sindh, Kashmir, 56 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Baluchistan, and elsewhere. There are nine hospitals where Moslems are treated and eleven dispensaries. Educa- tional work is also carried on by means of fourteen mixed (that is Moslem and non-Moslem) schools and eight purely Moslem institutions. The C.M.S. and the C.E.Z.M.S. have worked in close accord in facing the women’s side of the Moslem problem. The above figures give no conception of the tremendous task the C.E.Z.M.S. has undertaken in specializing on work among women. Reference has already been made to the changes in status and life of Moslem women in some lands, but it must be remembered that only the educated, a small minority of Moslem womanhood, is enjoying the immediate benefits of these changes. The changes have hardly touched the villages and the illiteracy among women in India is abnor- mally high even for Moslem lands. Probably 100 million Moslem women and girls are still entirely unreached and can be brought into touch with the message of Christ only through a very large increase of workers. There are unlimited openings for development of work along such lines as the following: infant welfare centres, social work, rescue schemes, instructional gatherings for mothers. Two things strike us as pre-eminently urgent to-day—(1) a strong educational policy for girls, and (2) the study of evangelistic work along social lines. At last, after centuries of indifference, Moslems are wakening up to the need of education for girls, and since the war there has been an increased readiness on the part of Moslems to send their daughters to mission schools although they know that a Christian education and very definite Christian teaching will be given. Mission policy to-day includes the education of Moslem public opinion on social evils. In this connection we will quote from the Daily Telegraph of May 30, 1925. The article is headed ‘ Perils of the Purdah,’ and says : A striking illustration of one phase of the continual struggle between the claims of health and social custom THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 57 occurs in the report for 1923 which has just been issued by the Calcutta Health Officer, Dr. A. M. Crake. Disclosing the appalling toll of human life taken by tuberculosis the report states, ‘ Between the ages of fifteen and twenty years for every boy that died of consumption five girls died. ‘To put it brutally, these girls were suffocated behind the purdah.’ I am convinced (he adds) that it is the retention of the purdah system in the densely populated gullies of this congested city which dooms so many girls to early death from tuberculosis. . . . Another very important factor with regard to tuberculosis among Indian girls and young women is early marriage. Dr. Crake declares that at a modest estimate there are always 10,000 cases of tuberculosis in the city. The Report of the Jerusalem Conference of Workers among Moslems (1924) ends its findings on women’s work thus : Owing to the fact that the mother’s influence over children, both boys and girls, up to about ten years of age is paramount and that women are the conservative element in the defence of their faith, we believe that missionary ladies ought to lay far more emphasis on work for Moslem women as a means for hastening the evangelization of Moslem lands. The Universities Mission to Central Africa.—The work of the U.M.C.A. among Moslems in East Africa is widely different from anything we have studied in such Moslem lands as India or Arabia. Islam has taken on the colour of the country in which it has established itself and nowhere is this more marked than in Africa. The U.M.C.A. setting out to win a great tract of country in East Africa for Chris- tianity found itself faced with the Moslem problem. The work was conditioned by the circumstances in which the mission found itself, and it could not evangelize the pagans without paying serious attention to the Moslems in their midst. Slavery was the trade of a large number of Moslem Arabs. It flourished under the rule of Islam for a thousand 58 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD years, and the sufferings of the enslaved Africans were largely the result of the Moslem view of slavery. ‘ Had Islam condemned slavery it might have existed, but it never could have prevailed as it did.’ The Moslems of pagan extraction in the U.M.C.A. areas were ignorant of Arabic. They memorized bits of the Koran, but they never understood the meaning of the words. The people swallowed all that was told them about Chris- tianity by Moslems, consequently the missionaries found that they had everywhere to counteract the impressions of Christianity given to pagans by Arabs and to protect the young native Church against the inroads of Islamic influence. This led the mission into direct conflict with Islam in and around Zanzibar. The actual words of the U.M.C.A. on this should be quoted in full: A collision is inevitable as our Christian converts are living among Moslems and subjected to constant attacks of a moral and intellectual nature, and as we must feel that the Moslem as well as the heathen has a claim on us, that we are, as St. Paul would say, debtors to them, how is the mission setting about the task ? A knowledge of Islam now forms part of the school curriculum. The Koran has been translated into Swahili and other books are written dealing with the faith and practice of Islam, and catechists and others are armed and prepared, and thus the scheme develops of not only raising up a strong native Church but also a Church with a sense of responsibility towards Moslems. This definite note of witness to Moslems by an African native Church is sound policy and one that might be copied in many African centres where Islam is strong, and in parts of India where there is a strong native Church. This double scheme of building up a Church and at the same time training it to face Islam is the real answer to what has been called the Moslem menace in Africa. Islam is still pressing in from the north through the Sudan and from the THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 59 east and west into the interior. Islam has been seriously competing during the past century with Christian mis- sionaries for the capture and conquest of Africa, and it has been established that where native Churches have become strong and self-expanding they have proved themselves to be more than a match for Islam, but it is doubtful how far these native Churches have been taught to look upon Mos- lems as a field for their evangelistic efforts, and how far they have been equipped to stand up against the arguments and appeals of aggressive Islam. A policy for pagan Africa should, we feel, follow the lines of the U.M.C.A. work in its definite instruction of the Christian faith in relation to Islam. Medical Missions.—These have already been mentioned in surveying the societies’ work, but from the point of view of policy their importance should be emphasized. The value of their form of missionary enterprise lies in the fact that it demonstrates so powerfully the spirit of Christ, and is pre- eminently a means of setting forth our Lord’s example and character. Medical work will obtain a hearing for the Christian message when all other means fail. This it does by undermining the inherent prejudice of Mohammedans against Christianity. The doctors have frequently been the forerunners of all other branches of work. They have carved out a path along which the educational and evangelistic mis- sionaries have travelled. Mission hospitals have made great national contributions to the welfare of the countries in which they have been established and in the relief of suffering in areas where no other doctors are to be found they have won a place in the affections of Mohammedan people that bridges all differences of race, language, and ‘religion. The hospitals of Egypt, Palestine, Persia, and the North-West Frontier of India are of outstanding value to the whole missionary cause, and every effort should be made to prevent the curtailing of the efficiency and strength of medical missions. Work on so great a scale demands the 60 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD whole-hearted support of the entire Church. It is very important, however, from time to time to review the field of medical as of educational mission activity. Occasionally, as new conditions arise, the work of the medical mission as of the school is needed more at some new centre than at the place at which it was originally started. Institutions in the very nature of the case are hard to transfer, and yet sometimes transference ought to be decided upon. Education.—The history of missions in Moslem lands was at one time to a large extent a history of educational work. Political, social, and religious conditions have been such that the entrance to new territory, the holding of that already occupied, and the gaining of a hearing for the gospel message, have found in the school their most effective agent. The changing conditions in the Moslem world make it imperative that the Church should reconsider its educational policy for Islam. Governments to-day are all adopting far-reaching schemes of education, and much that formerly was done by societies is now being carried on by government. This does not, however, rule out the necessity for Christian schools, but rather the re-adjustment of them to meet changing conditions, and such a re-adjustment involves a new definition of our educational policy. The great demand to-day is for a trained native leadership, and this is impossible without educational institutions of a high order. The establishment of sympathetic contacts with Moslem com- munities so as to remove their misconceptions of the content of the Christian message and life is an essential factor in any policy of advance, and this can be done through schools and colleges better possibly than through any other agency. It will be obvious how the problem of the transference of an ‘ institution’ referred to above sometimes arises at this point in mission strategy. It should be pointed out that the closing down of a mission hospital or school is not necessarily a sign of failure either in the work on the spot or the support from home ; it may be, and should always be when it occurs, part of a well thought out mission strategy, and should THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 61 result in the opening up of a better hospital or school elsewhere. Policy of Islam in Christian and non-Moslem lands.— While we are considering the policy of the Church in the Moslem world notice must be taken of the policy of Islam in the Christian and non-Moslem world. Reference has been made to the danger of leaving our native Churches surrounded by an aggressive Islam. This is no hypo- thetical danger, for from past experience it has proved to be very real indeed. Among the Eastern Churches Islam, since the days of persecution, has found a fruitful field for propaganda. Political alliances between Moslems and Christians have not only made for social union but they have formed aconvenient bridge between the two religions, and many Christians of the Eastern Churches have gone over to Islam. In Egypt prior to the war the Coptic Church estimated that about 300 of their people became Moslems annually. Since 1918 the number is probably very much bigger. This process of assimilation has been most marked in Abyssinia, where it is estimated that not less than 200,000 Christians in the past century have gone over to Islam. Does this not come within our survey ? Surely as a Church we must take note of the serious state of our Abyssinian brethren, and in the formation of a policy for Moslem work due recognition to such an outstanding need should be given. Any assistance we could give to this ancient Church should be in the nature of a mission of help. Reports also show that Islam is capturing many of the isolated Christians of Transjordania. Few people realize the extent of the organized efforts of Islam to-day to capture the world. In South Africa we are told that there are signs of a great struggle commencing between Islam and Christianity for the soul of the Bantu races. In Cape Town there are now twenty-three mosques, and Islam is becoming an increasingly serious competitor with Christianity in the whole Dominion. A Mohammedan writer in The Review of Religions for June, 1925, says: 62 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD ‘Our mission on the Gold Coast is progressing very steadily. Our brethren are building mosques and schools in different parts of the country.’ In the East Indies Islam is making strenuous efforts. The educated Javanese is a great Mohammedan propa- gandist. All kinds of societies and guilds are being formed which bear the motto ‘ Loyalty to Islam ’ upon their banners, and as Mohammedan propaganda is often nowadays mingled with nationalism in politics, it naturally wins the confidence of the people. Cairo is now sending out mis- sionaries to Java to hinder the Moslems from embracing any other faith. In Cairo recently a missionary collected forty-five different books and pamphlets all attacking Christianity and produced for circulation throughout the Moslem world. In India the Mohammedans are showing renewed mis- sionary activity. They are establishing missionary societies, opening schools, and they now have a theological college where missionaries are trained for their future work. Mos- lem controversial literature often adopts a bitter tone in its attack on Christianity, and one book published in Tamil closes with this prayer : O God, Merciful Lord, according to the promise Thou gavest to Abraham that Thou wilt curse them that curse ‘hee—send graciously unto the Christians and the Jews who slander and curse the prophet Moses, the prophet Abraham, and the prophet Jesus, the same diseases and punishments which Thou caused to come over Miriam and Korab who rebelled against the prophet Moses and slandered him. Mercifully grant this and punish them also accordingly. Amen. Many other facts could be given to show how wide- spread is the organization for the conversion of the world to Islam. In England an active propaganda is carried on with considerable ability, and one writer recently issued instructions to Moslem missionaries in England as to how to approach the Englishman, and as to the best methods of THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 63 explaining Islam to the western mind. He stated that England at heart is essentially Moslem and he foresaw in this country a fruitful field for Islamic propaganda. This work is insidious in that ‘for home consumption’ it eliminates all the worst features of Islam such as the Holy War, etc., and freely uses Christian expressions of thought with which to disguise Moslem teaching. It is clear from the foregoing that the Christian Church is challenged by Islam. Its work is threatened at every point and if the Church is to hold its own it must adopt a clear and comprehensive policy for the evangelization of the Moslem world. The Church is faced with a grave responsibility, which it cannot without serious consequences neglect. The extent of that responsibility can only be gauged as we consider the position Islam holds inter- nationally in the world, its demand to make Mohammedan- ism world-wide, and its aim to enthrone Mohammed as the ideal of the human race. In seeking to respond to what is termed the world call to the Church we must face the question, is the evangelization of Islam in this or any other generation worth while? It can only be worth while if Chris- tianity has something to offer to Islam that is of real value. ‘The central fact of missionary enterprise is the uni- versality of Christ. That the message of Christ is suitable for every age, race,and people, lies at the basis of the Church’s attitude to the world and to world problems. It is just here that an inevitable clash occurs between Christianity and Islam. Moslems claim for their prophet, just as Christians do for Christ, that he is universal and that his message is all embracing. No policy of the Church for the Moslem world would be sound that did not recognize this fact, and before we seek to outline a policy we must state the Moslem position and why we think we have a solution to Islamic needs. ‘The heart of every religion is its doctrine of God,’ and both the glory and strength of Islam lie in its conception of God. God is one, the invisible, eternal, omnipotent 64 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Deity, reigning in majesty and power and manifesting Him- self through human life as the controller of the wills, life, and destiny of man. The attitude of a Moslem to his Maker is fatalistic and his root idea of God is that of power. This very conception of God as all-power makes Him to a great extent the unknowable, and in the awakening of Mohammedans through education this in many cases leads straight to agnosticism. Mohammedans the world over have felt that the deism of the Koran does not meet the need. of a human soul, and the rise of mystical orders such as the Sufis and the Dervishes goes to prove that instead of Islam being a new revelation of God it is rather a new quest for the divine, and the multiform aspects of these orders show that in the majority of cases the quest ends in a quest only. The Christian contribution to Moslem needs begins here. It gives a new and revolutionary conception of God revealed in Christ as all love. A Mohammedan leader who was given a copy of the Bible said, ‘I shall read and study it because I find it changes my conception of God.’ Chris- tian missionary work is not the compassing of heaven and earth to make one proselyte, but the humble and sincere presentation to Moslem seekers after truth of Christ as the real answer to their search. Christ ‘ the desire of all nations ’ is the goal of the Sufi’s quest, and missionary work is therefore not the attacking of another faith, but rather the enriching of it by bringing to it ‘ the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all.’ Christians are convinced that the present pathetic search for God in Islam has no answer apart from Chris- tianity. Here then lies our first line of approach to the Moslem mind. Our policy in Moslem lands must be one of sympathy with all that is best in Islam, and of an adequate presentation of Jesus Christ as the perfect revelation of God. Educated Mohammedans increasingly feel a sense of dissatisfaction with much that the Koran teaches. The ladies of Turkey openly repudiate the Koranic laws about women. ‘The Ottoman government has devised a new code THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 65 of laws suitable to modern needs because it is felt that the laws of Mohammed are unsuited to modern requirements. Much of this is due indirectly to Christianity. The emanci- pation of women in Islam has its inspiration in the attitude of Christ to womankind, and the Church here also has a great contribution to make in helping towards the creation of a new home life, pure and clean, in Moslem lands. Christ gave a new value to human life and this surely is one of the big needs of races emerging into new nationhood. Behind it lies the world of difference in the past between western countries and Moslem lands. The lack of hospitals, of social service, of educational and philanthropic institutions has been in a great measure due to the low value placed upon human life in Islam, and it is true to say that where educa- tional and medical work have been developed, where social service has been undertaken by Moslems, it has been not because of the teaching of the Koran, but due to the indirect influence of Christianity. Here again emerges a second line of missionary approach to Islam, and our Church policy must develop in such a way as to emphasize Christ’s valuation of human life. If these things are so, why, it is asked, has the Church not made greater progress among Mohammedans? The fact is that many Moslems may be profoundly dissatisfied with Islam and yet have no leanings towards Christianity. The contribution of our faith to modern Moslem progress is generally unrecognized. A Mohammedan judges a religion by the nations professing it, and the failure of Chris- tianity to leaven all western life is a real stumbling block to many. The political domination by the West of the majority of Moslem countries has created the impression that Chris- tianity and imperialism are almost synonymous terms. The fact that Eastern Churches have frequently been made the tools of western powers, and the avenue for political intrigue and aggression, has made Moslems look with suspicion upon organized Christianity. This more than anything is the 39 66 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD cause of Turkey’s present hostile attitude to Christian missions. She fears that behind missionary work there lie political motives and schemes that will lead to the increase of western influence in the country. The divided state of Christendom, moreover, has made many Moslems turn away in disgust from our faith. Bound up with any Church policy for Moslem lands is the application of Christ’s teaching to all our great inter- national problems to-day. The Christianizing of our social, industrial, and political life in the West, the complete dissocia- tion of political policies abroad from the true expression of the Christian message and the revival of new spiritual life in the Eastern Churches, freed from western intrigue, are essential factors in the situation. The attitude of many of our fellow countrymen to Moslem students and merchants in our land is a permanent hindrance to the progress of the Gospel. What is regarded by eastern people as British arrogance, pride, superiority, and exclusiveness, gives the impression in the East that these traits are in some way bound up with our religion. What, then, is there in Chris- tianity that appeals to Islam? The character of Christ makes an irresistible appeal. The difficulty lies in the difference between Christ’s example and teaching and Christian practice and life. It will be clear from what has been said that a Church policy for Islam must be dominated by one aim—a new interpretation of the spirit of Jesus to Mohammedans : Only that spirit can avail with Islam. And yet it is because the Church, whose one sole asset that spirit is, needs in every generation to rediscover His fullness—it is because of this that she may perhaps learn some lessons from her great antagonist, perhaps see that antagonist unconsciously motioning her towards aspects of His fullness which otherwise, it may be, have escaped her eyes. Missionaries in the past have frequently viewed Islam as utterly corrupt, and there has in controversy frequently THE TASK OF THE CHURCH 67 been a lack of appreciation both of the best in Islam and the Moslem point of view. During recent years new methods of approach have been developed, controversy, as such, has receded into the background and missionary work has been characterized by an offering of young life that has spelt new service, social, spiritual, and dynamic, which is making already an enormous contribution towards the task before us. As a Church we believe that the future good of the world is bound up with the interpretation of the Christian message in an adequate way throughout the Moslem world. Our policy is to draw upon the missionary experience of the past hundred years, to profit by both the failures and successes of the past and so to lay our plans as to enable the Church as a whole to make its biggest contributions to the needs of the Moslem world to-day. While we differ with much in Islam the development of missionary policy should lead us to understand Moham- medans better and help them also to appreciate more fully our point of view, and thus enable each to value what the other has to give. We have seen something of the cause of past failures. We see to-day many of the results of past failures in a growing hostility in Moslem lands to western powers, in a determina- tion to rescue Islamic countries from the control of Europe and in a complete misunderstanding and misrepresentation of all for which the Church stands. As a Church we have been sorely lacking in vision. We have neglected this great problem because of our lack of power to cope with it, and in seeking now to outline a Church policy we would do so from the standpoint of a great adventure. We are face to face with a new situation and we need anew the gift of the Holy Spirit for vision and venture, for power and guidance. The situation is hopeful, interesting, and arresting. If the Church is to rise to this task the imagination of her youth must be fired, all church-people must be given a fresh sense of responsibility, and for the carrying out of a big 68 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD policy we must enlist and sustain the permanent support of the whole Church. What then is our objective ? Missionary work in Moslem lands must make a per- manent contribution to the present race problem. It must develop the social implications of the Gospel in lands where crying evils await solution. The range of this is unlimited. It touches the hareem system in congested city life, industrial conditions, particularly where child labour is employed, the overthrow of age-long degrading customs, and rescue work among orphans, divorced women and others. It involves the proper co-ordination of missionary educa- tional work on character building lines, adapted to the needs of the country in which it is carried on and not governed by western ideas of suitability or requirements. It must present the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not in the garb of western faith, but as the message for the land in which it is preached. Only by a re-study of this aspect of the problem will our faith take root in a foreign land, become indigenous and find its own expression in a self-supporting and self-expanding Church. Above all, missionary work must be centred, not only in the universality of Christ, but also in His absolute supremacy over all life. It must be the full interpretation of Him, as sufficient for all human needs to the whole Moslem world. CHAPTER V THE COST TO THE CHURCH Dvurine the Nile flood in Egypt the land is under water. The fellah goes barefooted into the swampy fields and scatters the seed on the face of the waters. As the waters subside the seed is sucked into the rich brown soil. For a time it looks like a black mass of barren land. The eastern sun shines on it and before long the first signs of a coming harvest are seen. The simple peasant has cast his bread upon the waters and he is to find it after many days. In faith he throws broadcast the seed and in hope he tills his land day by day. In the harvest season he calls out every member of his family to help. Camels, oxen, horses, and donkeys are all made to take their part that the harvest may be reaped, and the grain threshed and garnered. Over a hundred years ago missionaries entered Moslem lands. They faced difficulty, hardship, and death in their effort to sow the seed. In patient hope they toiled not counting the present discouragement as of importance because they worked for the future, and they brought to bear upon their task a faith that literally removed mountains. Those early pioneers passed away, others took up the task and built upon the foundations laid. Thus slowly the work went on, and gradually closed doors were forced open by the sheer weight of the love brought to bear, through saintly lives, upon the impenetrable Moslem mind. New doors were entered and yet it seemed as though the Moslem in his self-sufficient pride of race and religion would never bend to any appeal from Christianity. Other factors were at work though, and with the opening 69 70 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD by rail and motor of hitherto inaccessible countries a flood of western thought and influence was poured into lands pre- viously isolated and detached from western life. New contacts with the west opened the minds of the people and education began to influence in a new way peoples and nations. Countries developed a new national consciousness and new demands for independence were insistently made. Through all this the missionary went quietly on, noting the changes and waiting for the day of God’s opportunity, of God’s visitation. When in the spring of 1924 missionaries from all parts of the Moslem world met in Jerusalem in conference it was unanimously felt that a new day was dawning for the Moslem world. Every missionary society was faced with the problem of deficits and the additional cost of running existing work, and the tone of messages from home boards was not hopeful. Retrenchment rather than advance was the note being sounded. The missionaries were quite clear that God was calling them to advance and to be ready for a harvest they saw coming, but they were faced with the inevitable answer from home that advance was impossible. The faith that had triumphed in early days had not gone, the faith that opened closed doors, removed mountains, and turned defeat into victory was still as strong as ever, and the missionaries soon saw that their faith must now be turned to move the home Church to greater efforts and to a new offering of life and gifts for this supreme task. This is the story of the world call to the Church from the Moslem side. The problem now before us is not, can Islam be evangelized, but—can the home Church rise to this call of God ?. The future does not depend upon the heroic band of missionaries at work in Islamic lands nearly so much as upon the Church at home. We can depend upon the missionaries to do their part, but can we depend upon the Church to back them up, to see that they are adequately supplied with funds, and that there is a constant stream of new recruits going forth ? THE COST TO THE CHURCH 71 Both at home and abroad we need a new spiritual dynamic that will lead to revival at home and the extension of the kingdom of God abroad. In the concluding words of the Report of the Jerusalem Conference : The only spiritual dynamic is the living spirit of the crucified and risen Christ Himself. The whole Moslem world is awaiting the release of this vital force through human personalities vitalized by the Holy Spirit and witnessing with a new power to the Cross of Christ as the central fact of faith and life. We submit that the spiritual dynamic for such a compelling witness is, in the good purpose of God, always available. But there is nothing in the Bible or in the experience of the Church to suggest that it is available cheaply. Each marked release of the Holy Spirit of God in human lives must be at the cost of definite surrender and prayer. Of the cost in prayer we shall not say much. The first element in that cost must be a greater desire on the part of the home Church that the people of heathen and Moham- medan lands may become her heritage. There can be no prayer that counts very much or costs very much without an increase in this desire. The desire must be related to a passionate faith, and we are certain that this call from the Moslem world will prove a very simple and definite test of the faith of the Church. And both desire and faith, if these are to be potent, must be related to an exercise of the wills of God’s faithful people and this in no haphazard way. If people are to bend their wills to the attainment of a more effective prayer life, whether for Islam or anything else, they are going to find it costs. Men and women must be prepared to pay the price of a new effectiveness in prayer and it will not be paid easily. The cost in thought.—It is the contention of this report that the interpretation of the Christian message to the Mohammedan is vital to the fulfilment of the Church, the peace of the world, and the safety of Christendom, and that 12 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD it cannot be postponed. But undoubtedly the Church as a whole and most of its individual members, have not thought about the matter at all or have deceived themselves into thinking, either that Islam was the most suitable religion for those who professed it, or that the conversion of Moham- medans might safely be left to some future time, while we in our generation turned our attention to more pressing or less difficult problems at home or abroad. If the reader’s conscience has been awakened he will have discovered that the problems of the Moslem world to-day cannot be lightly set on one side. On the contrary, they demand from him the most careful study. Those responsible for this report are convinced that they must ask the Church as much for hard thinking as for costly prayer; no large increase in prevailing prayer is to be expected until there has been also witnessed a correspondingly large increase of time set apart for thought. Unfortunately our modern way of life does not conduce to the multiplication of quiet times for either prayer or thought, and if such times are to be found it will mean replanning our time ; that, too, may be a costly business. The cost in money.—In the very nature of the case it is impossible to budget for the cost of the Church’s work in Moslem lands during the next ten years, it is not, however, impossible to indicate the sort of financial response that must be made by the Church of England if she is to under- take the work to which we believe she is called. So far as C.M.S. is concerned, and this society has far more com- mitments than any other in the Moslem world to-day, she has already sounded the retreat and fifteen per cent. cuts have been made on the grants to every Moslem mission. Even before these cuts were made, several missions of the C.M.S. to Moslems had already been given up owing to inadequate financial resources. The C.E.Z.M.S. is in hardly less serious case. The Jerusalem and the East Mission and the U.M.C.A. are having a hard fight to get the bare neces- sities for carrying on the present work, and for the 8.P.G. Moslem mission work means absolutely new money. To THE COST TO THE CHURCH To strengthen existing missions and to revive work once in existence, but now closed for lack of money, will not cost the Church a penny less than an extra £20,000 a year. And the advance that is absolutely essential, if this report speaks truth, in the training of properly qualified experts in Moslem mission work, in staffing adequately the missions in Transjordania, the Sudan, Northern Nigeria, the Diocese of Singapore, Persia, and possibly Madagascar, will certainly not cost less than a further £20,000 a year. The price the Church must pay if the call from the Moslem world is to be heeded can come from nothing less than a new sense of the stewardship of money on the part of those who possess it. It is sacrificial giving that is needed, and that giving will have to be on a scale which gives the missionary societies of the Church something between £40,000 and £50,000 a year for Moslem work beyond what is now expended upon it. The cost in men and women.—Anglican mission work among Moslems in India has a great past, but where are our missionaries among Moslems in India to-day? Some of the very stations where the missionary heroes of old worked are now closed down. Others are still kept open but without the properly qualified missionary to Islam. Where are the successors of French and Pfander, of Lefroy and Sell, of Goldsack and Pennell? And are we to leave the one woman missionary to hold that outpost alone at Amman among the Arabs in Transjordania ? There is still no one to take the place of Douglas Thornton in Egypt. His great colleague still has no other man to help him there. Where are the men and women to follow the leadership of Bishop Gwynne in the Sudan ? Where are the recruits for Northern Nigeria ? Does no one feel a call from the new Persia ?_ Is the Bishop of Singapore to have no response to the call that comes through him from Malaysia ? Is the scholarship of our universities to make no response to the call for intellectual leadership that comes from 74 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD Jerusalem and Cairo and indeed from almost every important intellectual centre in the Moslem world ? And what of the hospitals on the North-West Frontier of India, on the great plateaux of Persia, in Palestine and Egypt and the Sudan and Transjordania ? Is the call from these for doctors and nurses to go unheeded ? And the women of the Moslem world, in this great hour of their emancipation, are there none who feel the call to go to their aid ? Can the reader doubt that the home Church must pay a large price in the willing offering of many lives if the call from the Moslem world is to be answered ? We know that we have failed to be definite and detailed in our statement of the needs of the Moslem world to-day for money and personal agents from the Anglican Church. All we have been able to do is to hint at the extent of these needs and to challenge the Church to face a task which she can only begin to undertake when seeing the fields of the Moslem world ripe unto harvest she prays as she has never prayed before that the Lord will send out labourers into that harvest. When such intercession takes place, many who pray will find that they themselves are the labourers the Lord of the harvest wants, and others will feel that they cannot go on praying unless they provide the hire of such labourers. All will find that there is a price to be paid, a service to be rendered, but the price, they will discover, is the price of power and the service is perfect freedom. STATISTICS OF THE MOSLEM WORLD The figures in both tables which follow must be taken as approximate only. In some cases they will not be found to tally exactly. In the absence of census figures in many lands, estimates by authorities vary greatly, and in the case of the Near East re- distribution of territory and exchange of populations makes the estimates still more precarious. In the case of Russia itis impossible at present to say what proportion of its Moslems are in Europe and what in Asia. The recent absorption of the Khanates of Central Asia has increased the figure.* TABLE I DISTRIBUTION OF MOSLEMS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ToraLt MostEM POPULATION OF THE WORLD, 235 million. DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO CONTINENTS :— Europe Africa Asia.. 7% PoLuiTicAL DISTRIBUTION :— Britain . India oy ae .. 70 million Rest of Asia .. Se SoG Africa .. ag SL iss Netherlands France Russia Italy Belgium Others Total under non-Moslem Powers Moslem States : Egypt .. Georgia .. Mesopotamia (Iraq) Persia Turkey Arabia Afghanistan Total under Moslem rule.. * Compare ‘A New Census,’ by S. M. Zwemer, in The Moslem World, July 1923. 75 18 million. 60°;. ;, 157 Me 235 million. 91 million. BT Ue bs Ly Ue 14 ”? 2 99 2 99 Lines 188 million. 12 million. Be es ae TOO Ney 9 LS 5 99 6 a3 47 million. 76 THE CALL FROM THE MOSLEM WORLD MosLEM SECTS: The Sunnis form the body of orthodox Islam throughout the world. The Shiahs are exclusive followers of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, and his successors. They are found almost entirely in Persia, Iraq, and parts of North India. The converts from Animism to Islam are mainly in Africa and the Malay Archipelago— their religion is strongly coloured by fetishism and magic. The modernists are those who, living under western powers, have received modern education and try to adapt Islam to modern thought and culture. 1. Sunni (four orthodox schools) 151 million. 2. Shiah (followers of Ali) isi 3. From Animist tribes of Asia and Afric ica, © 60-4 4. Modernists (possibly) .. 5, ae Lia 235 million. TABLE Ii PROPORTION OF MOSLEMS TO THE GENERAL POPULATION IN Various LANDS This table will be found most useful when studied in conjunction with the Map of the Moslem World (see Frontispiece). Country. Total. Moslems. EUROPE (with Russia in Asia) : Russia (in Europe and Asia) 136,000,000 20,000,000 Yugo-Slavia a 12,000,000 1,300,000 AFRICA: Egypt oe 12,750,000 11,658,000 Belgian Congo 11,000,000 1,700,000 Abyssinia .. 10,000,000 3,000,000 lialian : Libya, Eritrea and Soma- liland .. 2,000,000 1,600,000 French: N. Africa, Algeria, Tunis and Morocco 13,000,000 12,000,000 British : Zanzibar .. 196,000 183,000 Sudan and Somaliland . 5,000,000 2,000,000 Uganda ih 3,071,000 73,000 Kenya 2,630,000 427,000 Tanganyika 7,659,000 1,276,000 Nyasaland 1,201,000 73,000 S. Africa . 8,000,000 60,000 Nigeria .. 16,250,000 10,833,000 Gambia, Gold Coast and Sierra Leone 3,652,000 ‘430,000 Togoland and Cameroons 3,681,000 1,078,000 Egypt 12,750,000 11,658,000 STATISTICS OF THE MOSLEM WORLD Country. ASIA: Malaya India Arabia Persia Mesopotamia Palestine .. Syria Turkey : Afghanistan China DaiiR indies: . 77 Total. Moslems. 3,358,000 1,694,000 318,942,000 71,505,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 10,000,000 9,350,000 2,849,000 2,640,000 770,000 600,000 3,400,000 3,000,000 8,961,000 8,321,000 6,380,000 6,380,000 428,031,000 10,000,000 49,303,000 39,000,000 MEMBERSHIP OF EASTERN CHURCHES IN MostEM LANDS: In Egypt .. uy 854,778 Turkey (estimate) oy we 600,000 Syria ty ai ae ave 350,000 Traq ioe ia ae aT 78,792 Persia (estimate) SF oH 80,000 Abyssinia ,, mS we ..- 5,500.000 Total membership 7,463,570 N.B.—These figures are not inclusive of Roman Catholics or Protestants. INDEX Abdel Krim, 8, 35 Abyssinia, 61 Afghanistan, 24, 44 Africa— mission policy in, 37; Africa, Islam in, 39, 61 Ahmadiya, 43 Angora, 13 Arab empire, 5 Arabia— missions in, 39; neglect of, 39, 73 ; slavery in, 15 Arabs, 39 Armenians, massacre of, 13 Azhar University, Cairo, 31 South Bahaism, 40 Beyrout, chaplaincy, 31 Bible— Arabic translation of, 52; trans- lations into Moslem tongues, 52 ; distribution of, 51 Caliph— driven out, 7 Calls to Church from Moslem World— for men and women, 73; money, 72; for literature, 33 Carthage, 13 China— Moslems in, neglect of, 25, 49 Church— and Moslem needs, 11; history of early, 12; policy for, re Islam, 63-68 Churches, native, 37 Cilicia, 13 Conference of Workers among Moslems, Report of, 17, 30, 33 Constantinople, 5, 7, 29 for Dahomey, 36 Damascus, 12 79 Delhi, 47 Dervishes, 9 Druses, 9 Dutch East Indies— success of missions to Moslems in, 43 Eastern Churches— sufferings of, 52; workers from, 52 Education— co-operation in, 31; Moslem de- mand for, 20; policy for Church, 60 Egypt— Egyptian students in Britain, 50; missions in, 31-34; unrest in, 50 England— Islamic effort in, 62 French, Thomas Valpy, 46 Gobat, Bishop, School, 30 Greek Church Schools, 30 Guinea, French, 36 Holy Land— British Mandate for, 30; mis sions in, 29-31 Ibn Saoud, 8 India— Aligarh, 47; Baluchistan, 44; Bannu, 44; Bengal, 48; Bom- bay, 48; Delhi, 47; Dera Ismail Khan, 44; Hyderabad, 48; Kashmir, 45; Lahore, 25; Luck- now, 25; North-West Frontier, 44; Peshawar, 44; Sindh, 44; Punjab, 46 Islam— accessions from Christianity to, 61; accessions from paganism to, 62 ; accessions to Christianity from, 41, 43, 46-7; decline of, 5; 80 expansion of, 5; experts on, 54; extent of, 23-26 ; Great War and, 6-8; ideals of, 8; inadequacy of, 16; menace of, 63; mysti- cism in, 40; New Islam, 8; Pan-Islamism, 7; policy in Christian lands, 61; policy in non-Christian lands, 61; posi- tion of women, 15, 20,56; sacred cities of, 6; unalterable, 22 Ivory Coast, 36 Java, 42 Jerusalem— Canon of St. George’s, 30; Conference of Workers at, 17, 30, 33; diocesanization, 31 Jihad, 6 JXKhartoum, 34 Koran, 4, 5, 22 Kurds, 22 Lahore, first bishop of, 46 League of Nations, 9 Lefroy, Bishop, 47 Literature— Cairo Bureau, importance of, 33 ; produced by Moslems, 62 Lull, Raymond, 27 Madagascar, 53 Malaya, neglect of Moslems in, 42 Malaysia, 42 Martel, Charles, 5 Martyn, Henry, 28 Mecca, pilgrimage to, 8 Medical Missions in— Amman, 39; Kashmir, 45; Old Cairo, 32; importance of, 59 Medina, 4 Missionary Societies— Anglican : Cambridge Mission to Delhi, 47; Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, 24, 45, 48, 55; Church Missions to Jews, 31; Church Missionary Society, 29, 31, 39, 44, 49,55; C.M.S. of Australia, 48 ; Jerusalem and the Kast Mission, 29-31; Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 33; Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 47, 49,53; The Oxford Mission to Calcutta, 48 ; INDEX Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, 37, 49, 57 Interdenominational British and Foreign Bible So- ciety, 34, 52; China Inland Mission, 25 Non- Anglican ‘ American Baptist, Bl; Ameri- can Congregational, 51; Ameri- can Dutch Reformed, 51; American Presbyterian, 47, 51 ; Dutch, 43, 51; German, 51; London City Mission, 50; Roman, 52; Scottish Pres- byterian, 47, 51 Mohammed, history of, 3, 4 Monasteries, Dervish, 9 Morocco, 35 Moslem— law of apostacy, 19; missions in England, 62; modern move- ments, 8; students in Britain, 50; populations under Christian powers, 15 Moslems— accessibility of, 17-20; British responsibility for, 15; evangeliza- tion of, 14; cost, 71-74; diffi- culty, 16; international problem in, 17 Mosul, 9 Mustapha Kemal, policy of, 10 Nationality— versus Pan-Islamism, 21 ; in Tur- key, 7 Native clergy from Moslem con- verts, 46 Native churches— need for instruction about Islam, 58 ; danger from Islam, 39 Nicea, 13 Niger Colony, 36 Nigeria, 38 Nyasaland, 38 Omdurman, 34 Oriental, School of Studies, 32 Palestine, 29, 55 Persia, 39-42 Senegal, 36 Senoussi, 8 Singapore, 42 Smyrna, 13 Sobieski, John, 5 Sudan— Northern, 34; Southern, 38 Sufism, 40 Sumatra, 43 Srinagar, 45 Syria, 31 Tanganyika territory, 38 Transjordania, 39, 55 Turkey— a republic, 7; new laws, 65 Uganda, 38 INDEX $l Wahhabis, 8 War— Holy Wars, 6; Great War, effect of, 6-10 Women— awakening of Moslem, 21; dis- ease amongst, 56; education of, 56; new position of, 20; mis- sions to Moslem, 55; Moslem laws concerning, 4, 22 Zanzibar, 38 Zwemer, Dr. 8. 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