AND RELIGION 115
races regard each other as members of a great brotherhood in a way that is even more apparent than among Christians. The very salutation used among them (Salam 'alaikum, Peace be upon you) is an indication of this spirit of fraternity.
Within Islam this spirit is so strong that it breaks down barriers of race and color. There is no color or race problem in Islam, in the sense in which we use that term in Western lands. To this extent it certainly is far ahead of most Christian countries. The reason for this lack of race prejudice is not far to seek. The darker-skinned peoples form the vast majority of the adherents of Islam, and intermarriage between the races takes place freely and frequently. There are no separate mosques for Negro Moslems in Arabia or Egypt; and the spirit of brotherhood among Moslems in South Africa is in sharp contrast to the racial and color lines drawn by Christians in that same part of the world. In the worship of the mosque the prince may stand by the beggar; the black Negro by the fair Turk, for all are brothers in Islam. There are no "Jim Crow" theatres, hotels or railway cars in Moslem lands.
But after all that may be said on behalf of the genuine spirit of brotherhood that prevails in the Moslem world, it still remains that the conception of fraternity is strictly limited to the system itself. Islam knows only a brotherhood of Moslems, not a brotherhood of man. Even the salutation, "Peace be upon you," refers to the peace of Islam, and technically it
