Hello everybody.
-from Daisy Linz @ islammonitor.org
A little more than 100 years ago, this was Churchill's view in 1899.
The attached is a short speech, delivered by Winston Churchill in 1899 when he w
as a young soldier and journalist.
It probably sets out the current views of many but expressed in the wonderful Ch
urchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language, of which he was a pas
t master.
Sir Winston Churchill was, without doubt, one of the greatest men of the late 19
th and 20th centuries. He was a brave young soldier, a brilliant journalist, an
extraordinary politician and statesman, a great war leader (despite the disastro
us Gallipoli campaign and refusing to release Australian soldiers to fight the J
apanese) and Prime Minister, to whom the Western world must be forever in his de
bt.
He was a prophet in his own time. He died on 24 January 1965, at the grand old a
ge of 90 and, after a lifetime of service to his country, was accorded a State f
uneral.
HERE IS HIS SPEECH:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a
dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.
Winston Churchill as a subaltern in the hussars, 1896
The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems
of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist
wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement the next of
its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absol
ute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final ex
tinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power amon
g men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religio
n paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.
It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at ev
ery step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of s
cience, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of m
odern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome ."
Sir Winston Churchill
(The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50, London: Churchill saw it c
oming.)
Matt
... MCSE: Mine Sweeper Consultant and Solitare Expert
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