Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/13



everywhere is interested in the problems of youth, whether they be of their own or other countries and races. It is taken for granted, therefore, that the youth of America, with its ever widening social and humanitarian outlook, will welcome a study of Moslem youth as it faces the problems of life in these days of kaleidoscopic change. These changes affect both the social and the spiritual aspects of life. Old authorities are being questioned, and familiar restraints are being cast aside. Desperate and vain attempts are being made to inherit both worlds—the ancient order of Islam, and the material blessings of Western modern civilization. In practically every Moslem country in the world this tension between the old and the new is growing stronger every year. Finally, something snaps, and we have a new Turkey, a new Persia (now christened Iran), a new Iraq, a new Egypt, and some day we shall have a new Arabia!

In this process a shedding of religious and social ideas inevitably takes place. Moslem youth has a great part to play in this transformation and it is doing it bravely and with courage. The author has attempted (however feebly) to portray not only the significant