ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ١ "انتفاضة عربية - تقارير" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎٤] (٤٩٤/٣٥)

Muslims in Kaaba and it is essential that the Khalifa should be an
independent Muslim ruler.
Since this war broke out, Mussulmans have been watching with anxious
interest the attitude of Great Britain towards these Holy Places, and
because so far British Statesmen were very wise indeed to give no occasion
whatsoever for Mussulmans to feel suspicious, everything has run smoothly
in that respect. The Servants of Kaaba Society, which is solemnly pledged
to see that the Holy Places do not get into the control or protectorate of
any non-Muslim power, has expressed its thanks for the declaration made by
Great Britain for itself and its Allies. The Mussulmans have expressed
their gratitude for the wise step taken of announcing that Pilgrimage to
Hedjaz shall not be hindered and stopped by Great Britain. When this
policy of leaving the Holy Places alone has proved so successful, I do not
think the British Statesmen will feel inclined to alter it.
But then the news from Constantinople that British men-of-war had
bombarded and approached Hedjaz Coast ought to have been at once
contradicted.
In to-day’s Times ( 26 th June) there is absurd news sent from Bombay
by the correspondent of The Times that the Muslims of India are delighted
at the revolt of the Arabs. If there are any Mussulmans who say that
they are delighted, they are hypocrites and scoundrels. They are not the well-
wishers of Great Britain. They are just like those so-called Moslim trustees
of the Cawnpore Mosque who deceived the English Magistrates as to the
real character of a portion of the Mosque which under the wrong impression
thus created was demolished, and caused a widespread unrest from one side
of India to the other, and ended in a dismal and horrible tragedy—you know
all about that sad tragedy, and you know of such “ Mussulmans ”, and also
how they are despised by the Muslim public. In fact their support of any
step is considered sufficient reason by the general Muslim public to get
suspicious of it, even if it is good on the face of it, and to oppose it if there
is anything unsavoury about it.
By the comments of English papers on the subject of this “ Revolt of
the Arabs”, I gather that even the educated people here have failed to
realise the true aspect of the incident, and I don’t blame them for it. It
requires intimate knowledge of the sentiments and feelings, as well as of the
religious metaphysical currents in the minds of Muslims, to understand such
important problems concerning their religion. You are in a far better
position to understand them as you have been for such a long time in touch
with Muslims.
Now Muslims having been commanded by the Holy Quran not to revolt
against the established authority of their co-religionists, cannot look down
but with contempt on any efforts on the part of the Arabs to revolt against
the Turks. The Moslem masses, uneducated as they are, and favourably
attached to Islam as they are, themselves they will never believe that the
Arabs have arisen againt the Khalifa of their own accord. And if they
have risen they deserve every punishment, as did those Moslems even in
early Moslem Arabian Turkey who rose against their Khalifa. As you