A "Jihad" Appeal to Moslems -mr191507b
A "Jihad" Appeal to Moslems
TRANSLATION OF A RECENT CALL DISTRIBUTED TO THE MILLIONS OF ISLAM
JULY 1915
"Kill them: God will punish them in your hand and put them to shame; and ye will overcome them. He will rejoice the hearts of believers, and take away the wrath from the hearts unbelievers." (Text of the Koran.)
Oh ye faithful! Although we are summoning you to a jihad, where is your army? What do you wait for? The foe has summoned you on all sides with fire. See the House of God (Mecca), the point toward which all Islam turns; behold the sacred tomb of Mohammed, the object of the gaze of the faithful. Have you considered these matters? By your inaction and silence the enemy is gaining strength. What if these two sacred places should be taken?...
How often have the savage Russians, the traitorous English, the Frenchmen, born of empire parentage yet proud in their baseness, planted their unclean flags upon your pure and holy mountains? How often have they seized you by your lifeless, spiritless, feet and hands, and rolled you in the mire? Oh, you poor, helpless people of India, of the Oxus and of the Orphan islands of Tunis, and you wretched tribes of Turkey ! Oh, Bokhara and Turkestan, dying under the bloody hand of Russia ! Oh you falling mosques, overturned pulpits, crumbling minarets, the ornaments of the country, from which the voice of God has sounded forth; but where the proclamation of the Unity, which once made the mountains to tremble, is now heard only in whispers!
Go Forth, ye Moslems, into the places of blood and groans: there see the ruined countries of Islam, and learn a lesson. Look about you: every day the edifice erected by Islam is being torn down stone by stone. Aside from the empire of Turkey, is there any prop left to Islam?
Oh ye people of the Unity! Read your history ! Look at the despise graves of your kings ! If you desire honor and glory, heurism and damsels, behold all are awaiting you. Eternal joys, the shade of green trees, heurism, and angels are in the grasp of your sword. Think of these. But if you rather think of earthly things, know that weakness, dishonor, and oppression will surround you in this world like a ring of fire, and in the next world you will be cast out to live in torments. For if you throw down your arms and leave the battlefield you will bring upon your heads bitter anguish. Do you not understand this? You have become slaves of the people of the Cross. . . .
Behold ! God has bestowed upon you a greater favor. The tears of the Faithful for centuries past are bearing fruit. Your enemies are trembling under your hand. Attack them from every side. Whenever you meet them, kill them. Quicken the failing proclamation of the Unity by the fire of your rifles and cannon, and by the blows of your swords and knives. Cause the minarets and mountains and wildernesses to resound once more with the cry, "Allah! Allah!"
Jihad! Jihad! Oh, Moslems, blow the trumpet everywhere, of people of the Unity. The great God is ordering you to fight with your foes everywhere. God will put them to shame in your hands; He will give you the victory; He will quench the fire of their hate. Do not forget. God has purchased the souls and property of the faithful. In exchange, he gives you the heurism and damsels of heaven.
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press: 1915-1922