THE RICHES OF DAMASCUS
world. They would gladly die for the faith of Islam, and nothing but the strong restraint of European armaments holds them back from again raising the standard of the Prophet and setting forth on a new jahâd, or holy war, in obedience to the sacred mandate, "When ye encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads until ye have made a great slaughter among them. … As for the infidels, let them perish, and their works shall God bring to nought. … And their dwelling the hell fire! … Be not faint-hearted then, and invite not the infidels to peace!"[1]
Be he preacher or statesman, that man is a fool and blind who does not realize the tremendous vitality and undiminished strength of Mohammedanism, the power instinct in its half-truths, and the unsleeping menace of its essential antagonism to all the "infidel" world. Politically Islam is being rapidly shorn of its power; but as a religion—a religion for which men will cheerfully give their lives—it has lost no whit of its potency. As the cry of the muezzin echoes across the earth to-day from Japan to Gibraltar, there are, not fewer, but many millions more who obey its call than there were four centuries ago when Mohammed II. hurled his Turkish regiments against the ramparts of a then Christian Constantinople.
The Omayyade Mosque, as has been said, was once
- ↑ The Koran, sura 47:4, 9, 13, 37.
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