Show alight UPON ISLAM BOLD DEFENSE OP THE DOCTRINES OF THE KORAN 4 I gald of the essential points of the ReUf loui that nave for thair the bible and tilt KoranI democracy M could not know tha east any better than he does if he had been born there and we copy from his new volume souvenirs da monde a few novel views and considerations addressed especially to statesmen and thinkers the greater portion of the precepts of the koran have a meaning which escapes us because that meaning is st variance with our ideas and our manners and this is what gives risa to political errors of an incalculable reach the do not fail to return the attacks that are made upon them conceding to us the advantage in a mai aerial and scientific point of view they hold that the riches and learning of the few do not main the happiness of tho many and they claim fur their moral and social constitution essentially democratic in its origin Islam haja sumptuary law which puts a tax nf aj per cent upon the jewels of women and upon all objects of luxury this money has served for centuries to assist poor tradesmen and to buy them toola thanks to the prohibition of wina and spirits the social problem ia solved for them on seeing the dangers that hover over conr civilization the compare it to the smoking remains of a burned tent they think that if it should disappear in the flames of anarchy for want of an organic principle it would be rising again from its ash while their faith maintains order in everything the condition sine qua nou of progress you accuse us they say of being depraved are yon less so you who keep up perpetual orgies in your great cities expose your half clad wives aad daughters at balls and feasts and allow them to bo whirled around in the arms of anybody and everybody you reproach us for our ignorance in order to pass through life with honor your instruction st is not so good as ours thanks to the proverbs and the rules of wisdom that are taught to our children they conduct themselves like little men with yon the men and even the learned conduct themselves like little children you charge our functionaries function aries with venality who contributes to its establishment if it is not the vulgar herd of traders of every class that europe has scattered all over tha east you cry down our judiciary we too have a right to accuse yours you carge us with fatalism fatalists we are just like your learned men and your philosophers who base their calculations epou the immutability of natural laws resigned in tho face of plagues cata and death we say it was written for the rest we follow the words of tho prophet one day the prophet asked an arab visitor what he had done with his camel the arab replied 1 I have left him at thy gate hast thou tied him inquired the prophet ko I 1 have left him to the care of god thou hast done wrong abon should st first have tied him and then have recommended him to god the christian doctrines of predestination and of grace are more depressing than our fatalism your ignorance of islam hakea you confound slavery with ancient slavery and that which existed until recently in russia and in brazil with tho abera are no slaves all are brothers not in the platonic sense of the bible but actually having the same laws and the same positive duties according to the terms of tha koran unlike christianity ti islam has never treated as salable things transmissible with the land troops of men who professed the common faith as was done with the herfa of the middle ages the of russia and the negroes of conr colonies prisoners of the only slaves that it recognizes but their children are bom free and they themselves can become go by embracing islam it is the custom from time immemorial in certain countries for parents to part with their children for money in order to ward off poverty and open up to themselves a career of fortune by virtue of equality this career is limitless in the east how many eclavea have become pashas generals and ministers almost all the sultans have been the sons of slaves tlc alc black slaves taken from central africa find in egypt and in turkey a fate incomparably superior to that of the slaves of your colonies slavery is for savages tha first step toward civilization if their recruiting and their transportation give rise to well founded protests tha fault is not with islam neither the bible nor the koran is responsible for abuses the proclaim the superiority of their allah but they acknowledge moses as a prophet and jesus as allah the soul of god their veneration for jesus extends to the mother the immaculate conception introduced into catholicism by pias IX has been for twelve centuries a belief to the extreme simplicity of the dogma must be added the positive enjoy ments which the paradise of mohammed opposes to the platonic joys of the christian paradise in order to comprehend tha resistance of islam to all attempts at conversion christianity ia a menace lalami sm a promise said napoleon I 1 and his opinion ia worthy of meditation paris bisaro |