Your ShelfYour Projects

Liberty in Turkey

14%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 11, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 2.

Read the full edition

Liberty in Turkey

By A. T. ZACHARY

DWELLERS in the western hemisphere have heard of religious liberty in Turkey; and they may of right think that this great boon has come to our land. The old proverb applies, however, “The music sounds well in the ears of those afar off.”
The title of religious liberty was proclaimed, it is true. I quite believe it was declared by some Mohammedans who are of liberal mind. But let no one dream of genuine religious liberty in Turkey as long as religion rules in this land. It is impossible for a Mohammedan, in his heart, to love a Christian. His religion forbids it. A raven can not wash himself to a swan; neither a Mohammedan, to a Christian.
To the Mohammedan the Christian is a Kafir, which means infidel. Only that change of heart which the Almighty alone can accomplish will deliver the follower of Mohammed from enmity to all non-believers in that prophet’s mission.
In Turkey a religious leader, the pure descendant of Mohammed, must be the judge. Religion and the state are here united. As the Roman Church controls where it has the power, so it is with Mohammedanism. The British and Foreign Bible Society has been in Turkey for thirty years, but not yet has it been able to secure license for its colporteurs to work in the interior.
We in the East pray that the people of the West may not turn from religious liberty to the enforcement of religious observances by civil law. Such an attitude would affect us Easterners, and we will suffer persecution as the result. Let us have Christ as our example, who said, “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
A. T. ZACHARY.