A "PAN-ISLAM" REVIVAL IN THE ORIENT.
ARCHIBALD R. COLQUHOUN has written an interesting article in which he expresses a fear that there will be a "Pan-Islam" revival in the East. There was a time when it seemed to be possible that the Crescent and not the Cross might be the dominant power in Europe, and to-day the religion of the Prophet is spreading in both Asia and in Africa in a manner which is not without political significance. The question which Mr. Colquhoun considers is the possibility of a Pan-Islamic revival, there being some circumstances which seem to point toward a renewing of Moslem activity, or toward centralization. Associations calling themselves Pan-Islamite are found to-day in London, Paris, Geneva, and even in the United States; and nearly a dozen publications, six of which appear in Cairo, are devoted to their propaganda. The objects aimed at are so to revive the religion of the Prophet as to restore prestige of the East, and to form new Islamic groups for the preservation of the faith. And the means for accomplishing these ends are to be the coalition of existing Islamic states or the organization of religious forces to work through the Moslem world. Mr. Colquhoun sets forth the difficulties with which the movement will have to contend. He says:15 "The brotherhood of the Senoussi is becoming known even in journalistic circles in Europe. Its name is continually cropping up in connection with affairs in Algeria and even in Nigeria and Central Africa. It is the most important organization of its kind. Originally theological schools, these brotherhoods occupied themselves until the last century with controversial questions of interpretation, legal and mystical abstractions and cognate matters; but under pressure of the French invasion and of European encroachment generally, they gradually assumed a politico-religious character. The founder of the Senoussi claimed descent from Hosein, the murderer son of Ali and Fatima, and had the right to wear the green turban, thereby fulfilling one of the conditions of Mahdiism. The key-note of the Senoussi propaganda is uncompromising resistance to European influence and a return to the early militant spirit of Islam. "The growth of the Senoussi has been one of the most striking developments of modern Islam. They have adopted an active missionary policy and have spread southward through heathen Africa, while their organization has been framed with the idea of including and co-ordinating all existing brotherhoods. The Senoussi have established in all countries where the Moslem is governed by an alien race a system of occult government side by side and coinciding in its boundaries with the state administration. This occult government exists in Algeria, Egypt, and India, and its emissaries are at work in Nigeria."-Oklahoma State Capital.