Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/286



In the preface to our first volume we announced that this last chapter should be devoted to supplementary remarks and a general resumé. In describing in somewhat close detail the political, family and individual life of the Achehnese people, it was a foregone conclusion that questions of religion should crop up at every turn. It might thus be supposed that the drawing of conclusions regarding the part which Islam plays in the life of the Achehnese might safely be left to the observant reader. It will however be seen that we do not by any means share this view.

We have already pointed out more than once that the significance of the creed of Islam for those who profess it in the East Indies, has been the subject of much misconception in the majority of works which deal with the matter either passingly or of set purpose.

The causes of this phenomenon are not far to seek. Everyone who comes into close political or social contact with any portion of the Mohammedan population of these countries finds himself occasionally face to face with this very question of religion. Now as most such observers make their first acquaintance with the creed of Islam in the Far East with no further enlightenment than what is afforded by one or two popular European works, they form their judgements on the basis of entirely incomplete observation, under the influence of superficial and sometimes quite accidental impressions received in a limited environment. Yet it is such as these that are by way of enlightening the public both here and in Europe; this imposture, committed often in entire good faith, would be at once unmasked, were it not that