pilgrimage to Mecca be the occasion for the regular meeting of this league. But up to date all attempts to achieve even a semblance of practical political unity among the Moslem peoples of the world have suffered defeat.
Turkey, the strongest and greatest of independent Moslem states, today refuses to have anything to do with such a proposal. On the contrary, under the guidance of their strong man, President Kamal Ataturk, the Turks appear to be far less influenced by religious than by national considerations. Islam it would seem means far less to them than nationalism. To a much less degree, of course, the same may be said of the other Moslem countries. Seeing no way in which Islam can again become politically all-powerful, the Moslems of Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Arabia, for instance, are doing all in their power to establish strong national governments, to develop their own national interests, and to take their rightful place in the League of Nations. They are jealous of their own religion and culture, strongly desire full independence where they do not have it, as in Egypt and Syria, and use such nationalistic slogans as "Egypt for the Egyptians" and "Syria for the Syrians."
The following quotation from an Arabic newspaper in Palestine shows that Moslems themselves are aware of the dangers of secularism:
A meeting of sheikhs from Egypt and India would mean much in defense of Islam against the wave of unbelief from
