Religious Deviltry

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 29, 1876

Religious Deviltry.

AN EXAMPLE OF MOHAMMEDAN OUTRAGES UPON CHRISTIANS IN THE EAST.

Religious toleration among the subjects of the Sultan does not seem to have gained in strength by the recent decrees. Some time ago the tomb of the Rev. Mr. Morgan, an American missionary who was stationed for many years at Antioch, and who, dying, was buried at Hably, a village near Antioch, was desecrated and broken up, together with the graves of native Protestants who slept near him.

Bands of young men and youths of the city have also of late been addicted to parading the streets, invoking curses on the heads of the “Kafirs,” or infidels. These proceedings, coupled with frequent insults, did not naturally tend to re-assure the Christians, and as no check was attempted to be put upon them by the authorities, they have been kept upon the tender hooks of still greater evils. A week ago a man called Gabriel Effendy, the cashier of the Latakia Custom House, an Armenian Christian, a native of Bagdad, was accused of having been overheard to blaspheme the Prophet while in conversation with his wife in his own garden. This crime, if proved—and the two witnesses required by Koranic law were not wanting, besides others—is punishable by death. Notwithstanding the flat denial of the accused and the improbability of such a statement, the charge alone was sufficient to pour oil on the already lambent flame. The city was soon in an uproar, the mob crying for vengeance and parading the streets with loud cries. The Governor, as usual, looked wise and did nothing. He is an old man, whose special mission in being sent from Stamboul is (according, it is said, to his own statement) limited to levying the taxes and asserting Moslem ascendancy. The Major in command of the handful of troops, however, arrested the accused, and took him to prison under escort, to save his life, followed by the mob, and safely lodged him there. The telegraph meanwhile reported the state of matters to the Governor-General of the province of Damascus, who in reply sent orders to send the man to Tripoli, the chief town of the district. He was accordingly shipped on board the Russian steamer last Sunday morning, under a guard, in company with several of his accusers. Forty minutes after quitting Latakia the unfortunate man, worn out by his past sufferings, and despairing of the future, threw himself overboard.—Pall Mall Gazette.