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 AND RELIGION 111

such as in Egypt, Iraq, India, Syria and Iran these distinctions no longer exist, yet even today in Afghanistan and Arabia, where the purest Moslem rule prevails, it is not safe for Christians to enter except with the strictest guard and special permission from the authorities. Even Moslems who differ from the ruling powers on religious opinions are in danger of their lives. Not so many years ago there was a Moslem preacher of the heretical Moslem Qadiani sect from India who went to Kabul in Afghanistan to preach his doctrines. The orthodox religious leaders were so highly incensed against him that he was tried and condemned to death by the ancient Koranic method of stoning. A hole was dug in the ground, and he was buried up to his waist; then the multitude pelted him with stones until he died.

THE WANE OF ISLAMIC POLITICAL POWER

During many centuries when the caliphs held sway in Medina and Damascus, and in Baghdad of Arabian Nights fame, the political power of Islam and the caliphate was undisputed. In more recent centuries the sultan of Turkey was recognized as caliph and Constantinople became the center of Moslem political influence. During the decades just prior to the World War, Sultan Abdul Hamid made some interesting efforts to spread the doctrine of Pan-Islamism 1 in all countries where Moslems lived, with the hope that

1 A term used by Moslems themselves to describe the political and social combination of all Moslems throughout the world.