The
Mohammedan missionary from Morocco meanwhile stands on a different
footing. He says to the negro, "Come up and sit beside me. Give me your
daughter and take mine. All who pronounce the formula of Islam are equal
in this world and in the next." In becoming a Mussulman even a slave
acquires immediate dignity and the right to despise all men, whatever
their colour, who are not as himself. This is a bribe in the hand of the
preacher of the Koran, and one which has never appealed in vain to the
enslaved races of the world.[5] Central Africa then may be counted on as
the inheritance of Islam at no very distant day. It is already said to
count ten millions of Moslems.
The _Shafite_ school, the third of the four "orthodox sects," is the
most flourishing of all in point of numbers, and it has characteristics
which mark it out as the one best adapted to survive in the struggle
which is impending between the schools of religious thought in Islam.
The Shafites may be compared to our broad Church, though without its
immediate tendency to infidelity. With the Shafites there is a
disposition to widen rather than to narrow the area of theology. The
Hanefites and Malekites proclaim loudly that inquiry has been closed and
change is impossible, but the Shafites are inclined to seek a new
mujtahed who shall reconcile Islam with the modern conditions of the
world.
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