Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/180

 people to cooperate, how do you teach them to "play the game"? Obviously by playing games, and so we introduced football, baseball, volleyball, basketball. . . . The result is that physical education with all these group games is a regular part of the school program for all of the schools of Iran. ... Throughout the whole empire, young Iran is learning to "play the game" of life.

Through this helpful service in education Iran is gradually coming to take her place in the ever enlarging family of modern nations. The same may be said of practically all the other leading Moslem nations of the world. It is a thrilling thing to lend a hand in an enterprise that is such a vital part of the task of rebuilding the world.

"Are you a Moslem?" I asked a young man as we stood talking together at Ur Junction in the heart of the Mesopotamian desert while waiting for the train for Baghdad. Ur Junction is the railway station near the site of the city of that name made famous by Abraham some five thousand years ago, because he left it and "went west to seek his fortune."

"Am I a Moslem?" repeated the young man. "Well, I was, but recently I joined the Anti-God Society. Today I am an atheist. I don't believe in religion. It divides people, and makes them fight each other, and hinders progress. Iraq would be better off without any religion at all. It would be better if we all gave up our