Page 243 - Neglected Arabia Vol I (1)

6 NEGLECTED ARABIA

of Kdcn—llic identification being implicitly accepted b) ibc British
Tommy J. In that town of 2,000 Sliia inhabitants, there is no night oi
the week without a prayer meeting to lament Hussein. In Basrah J saw
the mourning at the death of the chief Mujtehid of Kerbela, the Pope
of the Sliia world. The news had been received in the early morning,
Before mid-day there was a spontaneous lamentation; the men were
bared to the waist, and beat their breasts in unison; cries of wailing
rose; and there was a curious intensity which could be felt rather than
described, warning'the onlooker that the fires of fanaticism are always
smouldering, and might at any moment burst into flame.
But there is a second reason why work in the middle East is
particularly difficult. There are ancient Christian Churches in posses­
sion with secular rivalries, and impaired morale; with little that is
distinctively Christian in character or outlook to lift them above the
surrounding Mohammedanism. I
Nominally in communion with Rome, they do not present to the I
Moslems any convincing spiritual reason for the superiority of Jesus
over the Prophet of Islam. Their existence renders the work of
Missionary Societies far more difficult, but also far more imperative.
And the appeal of Christian love and sacrifice, especially when shown
in the work and life of the medical missionary is never fruitless, hi
several cases the fame of the “Protestant Doctor” has spread over the
desert; wild untamable Bedouin will submit themselves to the care of
the Protestant Doctor, saying that “he carries a blessing in his hands.”
The Future
What would be the best way forward? In the present dearth of
money and men, little is possible in the immediate future, unless it Lc
a slren(/thcnin<j of the societies already on the field. But in the coming
revival of religion, Christian loyalties will lake Iresh forms. Perhaps
when a new Edinburgh Conference is called, new ventures of faith will
be possible that seem impossible now.
Certain it is that we Christians are debtors to the Mohammedan
world, to make the real Jesus known to them. A campaign of goodwill
is overdue. The ideal would be a great offensive of the Christian
Churches of the West, a new crusade not to recapture the tomb of our
I-ord, but to communicate His life and power. And the ideal method
would be that of a nriv interdenominational Missionary Society, hacked
by all the Protestant Churches. Such a mission would have to proceed
with educational, medical, and philanthropic work. Converts would at
first be few. But if young men from the Student Movement were found
to dedicate their lives to the conversion of Islam, and if the home
Church were united sufficiently to give them the backing they would
need, the downfall of Mohammedanism would come more speedily than
most men dream. Open the minds of Moslems by education; *»huw
them thus how impossible is the Koran in the world of the twentieth
century; let the appeal of the love of Christ call to them through thc
devotion of His followers. It might well be that in this century of
rapid movement and ceaseless change, the unalterable fabric of Moham­
medanism, with its static, unprogressive civilization, its low moral
standards, and its impossible dogmas, would break up and disappear.