r I have
left the game.

An arm-chair is a sorry substitute for an Arab pony, and a garden plot
for the highlands of Arabia Felix, but the human mind is not necessarily
confined by such trammels, and if my environment is narrow I hope my
book is not.

G. WYMAN BURY.

Helouan, 27th July, 1919.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING 11

CHAPTER II

ITS BEARING ON THE WAR 24

CHAPTER III

ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS 83

CHAPTER IV

MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY 110

CHAPTER V

A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE 187

PAN-ISLAM

CHAPTER I

ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING

Much has been written about Christianity and Islam, so I hasten to
inform my readers that this is not a religious treatise, nor do I class
them with the globe-trotter who searched Benares brass-bazar diligently
for "a really nice image of Allah" and pronounced the dread name of
Hindustan's avenging goddess like an effervescing drink.

I presuppose that Christians or Moslems who read this book have got
beyond the stage of calling each other pagans or _kafirs_, and it will
have served its purpose if it brings about a friendlier feeling between
the two great militant creeds whose adherents have confronted together
many a stricken field.

Most people have heard of the pan-Islamic movement, especially during
the War. Some of us have called it a political bogey and some a
world-menace, but these are extremist views--it is really the practical
protest of Moslems against the exploitation of their spiritual and
material resources by outsiders.

Pan-Islam (as its name implies) is a movement to weld together Moslems
throughout the world regardless of nationality. The ethics and ideals of
Islam are more attainable to ordinary human beings than those of
Christianity: whether it is better to aim high and score a partial
success or aim lower and achieve is a matter of personal opinion and
need not be discussed here, but one tangible fact stands out--that
Islam, with its easier moral standard and frequent physical discipline
of attitudes and observances connected with obligatory prayer, enters
far more into the daily life of its adherents than Christianity does
with us. Hence pan-Islam is more than a spiritual movement: