THE MOSLEM IN WORLD

NOBLER than paganism; cheaper than Christianity." So, last week, an Anglican bishop in a London speech, described the message of Islam.

London (and all Christendom) is newly aware of Islam. The shouts of Teheran mobs, the shot that killed King Abdullah, echo years, the world's chancelleries. As it has for 1,300 years, the riddle of Islam still confronts the West. It stands there, some 300 million strong, not giving an inch from Casablanca to the Sulu Sea.

Islam no longer presses upon the West with the all-conquering armies that swept east to India and west to North Africa's Atlas Mountains within 50 years of its founder's death in 632.

Long gone is its eminence in science, law, commerce. Islam is poor, a sad fate for the only great religion founded by a successful businessman. Islam is divided and headless, a painful fate for a religion founded by a first-rate practical politician.

Islam is militarily feeble, a disgrace to a religion that so eagerly took up the sword. Islam is intellectually stagnant, an ironic punishment for a religion which was founded upon an idea which at centuries carried the lamp of learning, and then, at the crisis of its history, deliberately turned its back upon reason as the enemy of faith.

Yet Islam in adversity is as great a marvel of impervious defense as it once was a marvel of invincible expansion. It survived three centuries of almost complete political and economic subjugation by alien powers. Generations of Christian mission aries beat upon it without making a dent. Year after year, the converts to Islam far outnumber the apostates from Islam.

Twelve of the world's nations have Moslem majorities. These lands may be the area of decision in the struggle between the West and Communism. If either of the great forces wins Islam as ally, the scale of power is tipped. To the West, opportunity beckons from one side of Islam — its God, its acceptance of the moral code, its protection of private property. To the Kremlin, opportunity beckons from another side of Islam — its poverty and corruption, its long acceptance of tyranny, its ingrained hatred of Christendom.

Much of the riddle of Islam — what it is, what makes it strong, what makes it weak — is derived from the personality and experience of its founder.

The Old Home Town

Mohammed and his birthplace owe a lot to each other. In his day — the 7th Century A.D. — Mecca was the main transfer point between southern Arabia and Syria. Mohammed, an or phan member of a major Meccan clan, entered the city's chief industry, cross-desert transport, and did well. He married his boss, Khadija, a widow some years older than he. He was devoted to her as long as she lived, and she was his first convert when he began going out into the desert and coming back with strange ideas about religion. The caravans to Mecca brought many tribes with many gods, and Mecca welcomed them all; the city contained the shrines of 360 deities. In addition to the regular business traffic, Mecca was host to pilgrims from all Arabia worshiping at these shrines. One of them was the Kaaba, a little building housing a stone which was venerated as a fetish sacred to Allah. To his fellow magnates of Mecca, Mohammed proposed nothing less than the sole worship of Allah and the abolition of all other gods.

Source : http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889174,00.html