The holy war of Islâm is, as we have remarked several times, a thoroughly mediæval institution, which even the Mohammedan world was outgrowing. One of the peculiarities of this institution we may sincerely admire: holy war against co-members of the Mohammedan community is absolutely excluded by the law of Islâm. The restriction of the community to Mohammedans, to those who profess the same dogma about what is beyond this life, is mediæval; but the consideration of strife within the sphere of the community as impious, provides an excellent foundation for the highest social civilization and is rather humiliating for the modern world. Let us hear what Martin Hartmann in his excited tone writes about it: “In contrast to Islâm, where war is on principle limited to war against those of different belief as being ‘unbelievers,’ nobody in the Christian world takes exception to war against adherents of the same faith, and here the servants of the church of Love are not infrequently the most zealous in the urging, that is, in denying the Gospel; they provide to order the patriotic gesture, which in this case represents a violation of the fifth commandment, not to mention that other commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Indeed, in Islâm it is only necessary to remove the mediæval restriction of the right to complete political existence, which was limited to members of the same community, and to expand the idea of the community to one embracing the whole world, in order to assure absolute world-peace, an absolute command of the divine law. To modern states which have Mohammedans as subjects, protégés, or allies, the beautiful task is reserved of educating these and themselves at the same time to this high conception of human society; rather than leading them back, for their own selfish interests, into the ways of mediæval religious hatred which they were just about to leave.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “Eenige Arabische strydschriften besproken,” Tydschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, vol. xxxix., pp. 379-427.
[2] My experiences at that time I reported in the February issue of De Gids, 1909.
[3] On his journeys Grothe, being a German, was continually referred to by Turks as “our friend,” which he translates by bizim dost instead of dostomuz, and his Turkish translation for “a German” is always Alemanly instead of Alman or Almanjaly.
[4] This computation is taken from the speech delivered by the German Emperor in 1898 by the grave of Saladin; the population then appears not to have increased in the last sixteen years.
[5] In order to fully appreciate the unctuously-fanatical fetwa and proclamation, one has to bear in mind that the real authors of both documents, Enver, Taläat, et al., are practically free-thinkers.
[6] It is one of a long series of “Political Pamphlets”—Politische Flugschriften—edited by Ernst Jäckh, and which numbers among its contributors Prince von Bülow (again) and other celebrities. Further, Becker published in the collection of Bonner Vaterländische Reden und Vorträge während des Krieges a lecture on “Deutsch-Türkische Interessengemeinschaft” (Community of Interests between Germany and Turkey); in the Süddeutsche Monatshefte an article “England und Egypten,” and in Das Grössere Deutschland an article “England und der Islam.”
[7] The following is a short anthology of titles from M. Hartmann’s writings of most recent years: “Der Islam, 1908,” in Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orient. Spr. in Berlin, Jahrg. xii., Abt. ii., 1909; Die Arabische Frage, Leipzig, 1909; Der Islam, Leipzig, 1909; “Die neuere Literatur zum Türkischen Problem” (Recent Publications on the Turkish Question), in Zeitschrift für Politik, 1909; Unpolitische Briefe aus der Türkei, Leipzig, 1910 (Non-political Letters from Turkey); Islam, Mission und Politik, Leipzig, 1912; Fünf Vorträge über den Islam, Leipzig, 1912 (Five Lectures on Islâm); “Das Ultimatum des Panislamismus” (on the holy war against Italy), in Das Freie Wort, Jahrg. xi., No. 16; “Mission und Kolonialpolitik,” in Koloniale Rundschau, Heft 3, März, 1911.