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 AND RELIGION 121

law prevails and the strict requirements of the shariat cannot be legally carried out, a convert from Islam runs the risk of suffering secret death. Little wonder that Moslems are often forbidden by their leaders to purchase and read Christian books and tracts, and that again and again these same books and tracts, and the Bible as well, have been publicly torn up, destroyed, or burned by irate mullahs in every Moslem land. Little wonder, then, that when such religious intolerance pervades the whole community there are so few converts from Islam to Christianity. That many do brave persecution and even death, however, is shown by the stories of Moslem converts given in the next chapter.

RELIGIOUS REGULATION OF PUBLIC QUESTIONS

There are many important public questions which in Moslem countries are strictly regulated by religious considerations. In fact, where strictly Moslem government prevails the ruler is under obligation to follow the legal opinion of the learned doctors of Islam, one or more of whom is officially associated with him. In the days of the Turkish caliphs this officer was known as the Sheikh ul Islam; he largely controlled the policies of the country, and decided what things were permissible and what were not. Of course Turkey today as a republic is free from this dead hand of the past; but in Egypt all such matters are still controlled in great measure by the opinion of the Islamic doctors of law of Al Azhar University