POLYGAMY, DIVORCE, AND SLAVERY
These three evils are so closely intertwined with the Mohammedan religion, its book, and its prophet, that they can never be wholly abandoned without doing violence to the teaching of the Koran and the example of Mohammed.
A Moslem who lives up to his privileges and follows the example of their saints can have four wives and any number of slave concubines; can divorce at his pleasure; can remarry his divorced wives by a special, though abominable, arrangement; and in addition to all this, if he belong to the Shiah sect he can contract marriages for fun (metaa), which are temporary. The Koran permits a Moslem to marry four legal wives, and to have as many concubines, or slave-girls, as he can support. In Turkey, Moslems call a woman cow.
In Islam, marriage is a kind of slavery; for the wife becomes the slave (rakeek) of her husband, and it is her duty absolutely to obey him in everything he requires of her, except in what is contrary to the laws of Islam. Wife-beating is allowed by the Koran.
The other ethic, which is much worse than all the rest, is slave-trade. According to the Koran, slavery and the slave-trade are divine institutions. From the Koran we learn that all male and female slaves, either married or single, taken as plunder in war are the lawful property of the master, his chattel. Slave-traffic is not only allowed but legislated for by Mohammedan law and made sacred by the example of the Prophet.
For five hundred years Islam has been supreme in Turkey, the fairest and richest portion of the Old World, and what is the result today? The treasury is bankrupt; progress is blocked; "instead of wealth, universal poverty; instead of comeliness, rags; instead of commerce, beggary."
Such are the chief tenets and religious requirements of Mohammedans in Egypt, Turkey, and in other countries where the people believe in the Koran. Christianity exists in Turkey by a kind of sufferance. The Turks hate, ridicule, foster pride and passion toward Christians; the ignorant populace are taught by their learned men to regard themselves infinitely better than any Christian. The mosques are generally the hotbeds of fanaticism. The usual manner of speaking of the Christian was and still is to call him, in Turkey, "Imansig Kevour" (unbeliever); in Egypt, "Nasrani," (Nazarene), or "Ya din el kalb," (you dog). Peace, harmony, and happiness in the homes of Mohammedans are of a very transitory nature.
Mohammedans may be stedfast and unswerving in their faith and yet guilty of some of the most heinous crimes. Having lived among them, I have had many opportunities to learn of their treachery as well as of their sterling qualities. The Mohammedans are in great need of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a gospel of pardon, peace, purity, righteousness, and true wisdom.
Notwithstanding the fact that from their earliest childhood their ideas are perverted by their traditions and false teaching, and their consciences defiled through their vain religion, the melting power of the Spirit of God reaches some of their hearts when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. Their lives of deception bring to them many a snare, yet from among their ranks in the Orient have come some of the most staunch ministers of the gospel. Gross darkness once reigned throughout the land of Egypt, and now fervent prayers are ascending to the throne of God for the light of the gospel to drive the spiritual darkness from the hearts of the people.