1924
SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S.
MARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD. LONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK
Is Islam a religion of tolerance? - Opinion of Islamic scholars - Is there no penalty for apostasy ? - This book is the answer.
WHY SO FEW MOSLEM CONVERTS?
The indisputable fact that converts are few - Various reasons alleged - The true reason given is the law of apostasy - Testimony from Egypt, a convert's letter - Constantinople - Nigeria - India-Algeria - Tunisia-Java-Sumatra - China.
THE LAW OF APOSTASY
In the Koran - Texts quoted and explained - The importance of Tradition - How and when collected - Its authority - Traditions on how Mohammed dealt with apostates - Woking denies that this Tradition is germane - Hanifi law regarding the apostate - His property, family and person - The death penalty - His children - Maliki law according to Capt. F. H. Ruxton - The law in Turkey - How it was modified - Other authorities - The Minhaj-at-Talibin - Summary in Al Mad-khal-Marriage annulled - Act in India to mitigate this law of apostasy - How the law produces intolerance towards missionaries - In the fourteenth century at Trebizond - And in the nineteenth century the Armenian Massacres and forced conversions.
HOW IT WORKS
The law not a dead letter-Doughty in Arabia - A convert threatened in East Arabia - In Michigan University - Instances in Egypt - In the Delta an inquirer is poisoned - The baptism at Sanabo - Other cases of persecution in Egypt - In Turkey - In Nigeria - The martyr of Smyrna - Shems id-Din-Mirza Paulos of Persia - Use of poison in North Africa - Exporting converts from Syria to Egypt - An Afridi lad stoned to death for Christ - What a girl convert suffered in Java - An Aden Arab threatened - Conditions in Palestine - India - Testimony of Sir S. K. Scott-Moncrieff - The martyr of Afghanistan - A White Father "passed for martyrdom."
CENTURIES OF INTOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION
Who were the earliest apostates? - Obeidallah ibn Jahsli - Their fate - War declared against apostates after Mohammed's death - What toleration of Christians meant conditions imposed on those who were tolerated - Laws to show disability and inferiority - Gibbon's summary - Toleration became intolerable - Dress and social position of Christians - Forced conversion to Islam in Persia - The ordinances of Omar - Christians not to hold office Persecution of the Copts and its result - Martrydom of Geronimo - A tragedy in stone - The burial permits given to Christians and Jews - Jihad and the Armenian Massacres - Religious assassination - Even among the Bahais - Conversions to Christianity in all these centuries - The ritual used - Joseph Pitts made Moslem - His visit to Mecca - Henry Martyn's earliest convert - "Whosoever shall confess Me before men."
HIDDEN DISCIPLES
Nicodemus came by night - Such are found everywhere in the world of Islam - What would you do? - Bible readers in Arabia - Experience of colporteurs in Muscat-Albania-Teheran - Secret disciples in Egypt - What about baptism? - A Moslem convert's opinion - William Famison - How he found Christ - His letters - His witness - A martyr's death in Cairo - Two mullahs from Turkey - Their boldness and preaching before baptism - Controversy and persecution - Secret believers in the Sudan and in Palestine - A seeker after God in Mecca - The man who baptized himself - The Circassian officer - The young woman of Meerut - Hidden disciples in Turkey - The candy-seller - The lad at school - Forever with the Lord.
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
Price of religious liberty - Early proclamations in Africa and India - Present conditions in India - The Dutch East Indies - Africa - Egypt under the old laws and the new Constitution - The long, long trail in Turkey - Promises on paper - The new Treaties-Whither do they tend? - Syria and Palestine under Mandates - Persia under the new government - Greater liberty - Iraq - The two areas of forbidden liberty in Africa, the Sudan and Nigeria - Signs of the dawn of freedom - A Turkish testimony - The judgment of history on Islam and human freedom.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Plaster Cast of Geronimo
Group of Converts from Java
Facsimile of MSS. Page from Buhhari"
Facsimile of Page from a Standard Law Book
Facsimile of Page from " Muslim," vol. ii, p.34
Tomb of Geronimo
The Cathedral at Famagusta
Medan-Moeslimin" (a Java Magazine)
Mahhail Mansur, a Converted Sheihh
Staff of Mission Hospital, Meshed
Mirza of Persia and Abdullah of Syria
Turkish Flag of Freedom, 1908
"The question of apostasy has furnished detractors of Islam a fruitful Source of alleging all kinds of barbarities against the Faith of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon his holy soul!) and never was an allegation more ill-founded than this. The habit which makes itself responsible for laying such and other baseless and highly unjust charges at the door of Islam is the Psychological result of a mental activity in which the chief elements are those of an inherent Prejudice against Islam combined with ignorance. It is the ignorance of the true and genuine Islam which manifests itself so frequently in the Press and on the Platform of Christian missionary Propaganda in so many ways in which its tenets are depicted in the blackest of colours."
"Islamic Review," November 1916.
