File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎184v] (366/450)

I’t
( 26 )
name of the Turkish Khalif is mentioned the preacher descends a step down the
pulpit in order to minimise his importance and degrade him ; you say your midday
prayer • all these formalities were introduced by the Arabs with a view to
humiliate you. You did not stop at that; you went further to neglect your
sacred people, to sanctify foreign Sheikhs such as Abdel Gader El Gilam and
El Sayed El Badawi, &c. You maintain that Arabic is the language or the
inhabitants of Heaven (Paradise), that it is the tongue of Munkir and Nakir (the
angels of death) and other angels, and that it is the language of God the Almighty
Himself. You also say that Syria is the land of Resurrection. 1 hese sayings
were invented by the Arabs for your deception. They made you believe that a
man will rise from their midst called El Mahdi and such other tales.”
r*
On p. 88 :—
a I am astounded because of the dulness of your minds and the falsity of
your beliefs. Where was El Khudr* before he visited this city (Constantinople) ?
This mosque is the heritage of the Turkish conqueror.! Why did El Khudr not
c<>me here before the Turkish conquest and turn its front towards El Eaabaljl ?
He apparently waited until the conquering Sultan came, to follow m his wake.
You fail to sanctify the Turkish conqueror (Peace be upon him) and venerate an
imaginary person you call El Khudr.”
Sheikh Obeid Alla was not content with applying the phrase “ God bless him and
preserve him ” to the conqueror, but he equally applies it (p. 71) to members of the
Union and Progress party, such as “ Rida, Asad, Gaweid, Shukri, Anwar. ^
Sheikh Obeid Alla dared to deliver his sermon in the Mosque of Ay a Sophia
because he was under the protection of an armed Turkish police force. A Sheikh of
the mosque expressed a desire once to repudiate some infidel statements made by him,
but he found himself in the hands of a policeman. The Sheikh tried to explain to the
policeman that he had no desire to ask Sheikh Obeid Alla to a duel, and that he
simply meant to discuss a religious point with him; but the policeman informed him
that he had orders to silence by force anyone attempting to object to any of Sheikh
Obeid Alla’s statements. .
The above is only an insignificant part of what I know of the Unionists, ibis
I put before the Moslems that I may not be guilty of silence. It is, then, for everyone
to form his own ideas about them. It is for each one to be either for or against the
truth as his conscience and faith dictate to him. _
In the meantime I wish to have the Fetva of the Grand Mufti, the Sheikh of
El-Azhar, and all those who are entrusted with Mahommedan learning, about a
Government that defends with its police a wicked Sheikh who declares in the biggest
of mosques that prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage, and the Confession of Faith
are not essential in religion. Mfhat do they think of a Government that demolishes
the mosques of God in order to erect in their place hotels to spend their resources on,
and “ Dar El Badaai” for teaching of dancing and music ? What do they think of a
nation in whose mosques it is proclaimed that it is a folly and ignorance to mention
the names of Abu Bekr, Omar. Osman and Ali, whom they classify, together with the
other Moslem Ulema and Moslem Saints, among the foreigners ? And what do they
think of the use of the formula “ God bless him and preserve him ” for persons like
Gaweid and others, who are known, beyond all doubt, to have decided to alter and
modify the Koran and to lead the people by degrees into infidelity and paganism
because such are Turkish and because Islam is Arabic ?
Please give me your Fetva.
[This is taken from the “ Near East” for 18th August, 1916.]
* A legendary Mahommedan, sometimes identified with hlijah.
t Sultan Mohammed the Second,
f There is apparently a belief that El Khudr had turned the front of Aya Sophia towards Mecca.
f