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European Witness
MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Page 3
Mohammedanism to-day covers the northern part of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, nearly to the equator, far below which it has passed on the East; it surrounds Abyssinia, an island of degenerate Christianity; it holds solidly Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkostan and has overrun large portions of China and Russia, where it is making rapid progress. It is one of the leading religions of India, and has reached the Dutch Indies and Philippines.
Pierre Andre, in his work "Islam et les Races", gave the total number of Mohammedans in the world in 1917, as 246,920,000; Laurence Martin of the Library of Congress, in an article in "Foreign Affairs" for March, 1923, gives the total number as 230,000,000 a slightly more conservative figure; but any estimate must be revised yearly, as the number is increasing with astounding rapidity. It is probable that the number of Mohammedans in the world to-day is about 250,000,000.
To the above vast portions of the earth’s surface which have already been mentioned as solidly Mohammedan must now be added Asia Minor, the last hope and outpost of Christian civilization in the Near East, which was rapidly spreading and developing with the aid of our own and other Christian schools, but which has recently been cleared out by fire and massacre with the aid and connivance of the Christian powers.
It has already been asserted that conversions from Mohammedanism to Christianity are extremely rare, while the former is taking heavy toll from Christian converts. It seems also that there are well-authenticated cases of Europeans and Americans having embraced Islam. Professor T. W. Arnold in his ingenious defense of Mohammedanism, "The Preaching of Islam", cites the case of an English solicitor, Mr. William Henry Quillam, who embraced Mohammedanism and became a missionary of that faith in the city of Liverpool. By 1897, ten years after his own conversion, Mr. Quillam had made one hundred and thirty-seven proselytes.
An American, Mr. Alexander Russell Webb, at one time United States Consul to Manila, after having embraced Mohammedanism, opened a mission. Mr. Webb had been brought up as a Presbyterian. In 1875, a Methodist preacher named Norman became converted to Mohammedanism and began to preach it in America.
While I was in Smyrna a native-born American, who was weary of a devoutly Christian and ascetic wife, so good that he could not get a divorce from her, became a Mohammedan in order to marry a young woman with whom he had fallen in love, and with whom he was living happily, as man and wife according to Mohammedan law, up until quite recently. There is also the well-authenticated story, which, for obvious reasons, has not been given wide publicity, of the American missionary woman who married a rich Turk and became a member of his already well-stocked harem. A number of her former associates wont to see her and endeavored to persuade her to return to them. She replied:
"I have always desired to be married and live the natural life of a woman, for which God intended me. I saw the years slipping away, with no chance in sight of fulfilling the functions for which the Creator made me and I rebelled. No Christian man has ever made me an honorable proposal of marriage, though several have paid me court with shady intentions. This man offered me a union honorable according to his religion and the laws of the country, and I accepted. I would rather have a quarter of a man than none at all. I am soon to become a mother; I am perfectly happy, and I don’t want ever to hear anything more about missionaries or missionary work."
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