To do nothing for
Mussulmans in the next ten years will be to take cause against them. The
circumstances of their case do not admit of indifference, and they are
approaching a crisis in which they will, on two points at least, require
vigorous political protection. Their Caliphate in some form of temporal
sovereignty, though perhaps not of empire, will have to be maintained;
and short of securing this to them, and their free access as pilgrims to
Mecca, it will be idle to pretend to Mussulmans that we are protecting
their interests, or doing any part of our sovereign duty towards them.
It can hardly be argued that the Indian doctrine of religious equality
will suffer from doing political justice to Mohammedans.
On the downfall, therefore, of the Ottoman Empire, whenever that event
shall occur, the _role_ of England in regard to Islam seems plainly
marked out. The Caliphate--no longer an empire, but still an independent
sovereignty--must be taken under British protection, and publicly
guaranteed its political existence, undisturbed by further aggression
from Europe. On the Bosphorus no such guarantee can now be reasonably
given, because there it lies in a position militarily indefensible.
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