Islam's Reformers .pdf

wide. The fixed, unchangeable rules fell down.”All the heavenly religions were fixed. The thing called“religion” must be stable. If it is changed by people, the new onewill be called not a “religion” but “irreligiousness”.22 - The reformer says:“The white may mix with the black race. The mulattos cannotestablish a civilization. The spirit, that is, the common feelings,of each race will fade away. This theory put forth by GustaveLeubon has been witnessed by the Ottomans. With the foreignblood which mixed with their race as the result of the method ofdevşirme (recruiting boys to be brought up as Janissaries) andthrough concubines, the Ottoman spirit deteriorated. This addedto their genius but spoiled their morals.”Gustave Leubon said, “Of the mixed races, the minority willdie, their blood changing after a few generations.” Because themajority was Turkish in the Ottoman Empire, the Turks did notvanish but they increased in number and became stronger.Today, democracy has improved so far as to be said to belimitless in European countries, and races have been mixedaltogether. Did this cause them to lag behind? There is not apure race in the United States, where the mixture of variousraces has not prevented advancement in civilization. If theywere honoured with being Muslims, their morals also would beperfect and the ancient Islamic civilization would enlighten thewhole world. While races have mixed more in the course ofhistory, there has not been any decrease in civilization.According to the reformer, people must have been morecivilized in the old times when people mixed least.It is very unsound, and extremely ridiculous, to regard themixing of races as the reason for the immorality or corruptionwhich led the Ottomans to a catastrophic end. The one and onlyreal cause of the corruption and immorality was theirreligiousness of the educated and the ignorance of theuneducated. The role of irreligiousness in worsening moralswas much more effective than that of ignorance. It is for thisreason that the educated irreligious are worse and baser.Therefore, survival of societies necessitates religiousknowledge and a method of education based on religiousknowledge. In order to prevent the fall of the Ottomans, thosewho wanted to rescue them from ignorance, which was yet theirown disease, dragged them to the destruction of irreligiousness,- 33 -