I was very much surprised at this intelligence. A Parliament in Constantinople! How would the members be chosen? and who would choose them? If universal suffrage prevailed, only one in about every 300 of the electors would be able to read or write; all of them would be ignorant of everything beyond the interests of their immediate neighbourhood.
"Is a Parliament possible here?" I inquired of my host.
"It is possible in theory, but impossible in practice,"[9] was the reply. "We require more liberty, but this must be a question of time. We must educate the people, and teach both the Christians and Mohammedans that a difference of opinion on religious matters is not a subject about which men should quarrel. Religion has been the cause of more wars than anything else in history."
"I tell you what it is," he continued, "I believe that in another hundred years there will be either no religion at all, or else that every religion will be merged into one creed."
"The Christian," I observed.
"Who knows?" continued my host. "We live in strange times; even we Turks, the more particularly those who live in Constantinople, begin to argue about such matters. However, there is one thing I cannot understand about you Christians—you appear to me to have so many roads to heaven. For instance, in Anatolia there are American Protestant missionaries, Italian Catholic missionaries, and then there are the Armenians, who profess the Armenian faith."
"Well," I remarked, "what of it?"
"Wait a moment," said my host. "An Armenian, who is of the Armenian faith, is half-way up his staircase to heaven. An American missionary calls after him, 'Where are you going?' 'I am going to heaven.' 'No you are not; that is not the road to heaven. You are going in the wrong direction. Come down immediately, and I will show you the way.' The Armenian descends the steps, and begins ascending the road the missionary points out to him. Presently another voice is heard. It comes from the mouth of an Italian missionary. 'Where are you going?' 'I am going to heaven.' 'No you are not; come down immediately. You are on the road to hell.'"
"The result is," continued Suleiman, "that the poor Armenian does not know which way to turn. He is perpetually going up, or coming down the steps, and he never reaches his destination."
"Stop," I said, "you Mohammedans are also split up into sects. There are the Sunnites and the Shiites, and you both hate each other."