Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/177

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only in bringing the healing and the love of Christ to the poor, the suffering and the needy, but in creating better understanding between the peoples of the Moslem and the Christian lands?

THE OPEN DOOR OF EDUCATION

There is not only the challenge of physical need; there is the challenge of the great hunger for education and social reform. The demand for modern education is greater than ever before in every Moslem land.

In the far-away Sulu archipelago among the Philippine Islands, where half a million Moslem Moros live under the Stars and Stripes, a few years ago there was practically one hundred per cent illiteracy. Only a few mullahs, or priests, could read. The people were among the most fanatic and savage Moslems on the face of the earth. Order was maintained by the United States army with the greatest difficulty, and even so, wild outbursts were not uncommon.

Then a missionary was sent there to see what he could do. He went with fear and trembling, leaving his wife and children behind because it was not safe to take them. He soon discovered that the greatest problem of the Moros was illiteracy. With singular ability and rare tact and judgment he tackled the problem of adult education by the direct method of teaching the people to read. He prepared easy charts using the simplest words, and started in. His rule of procedure was one of cooperation. He would teach a