PEACE MAY BE IN MOSLEM HANDS

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r1~.?a HiiP`. HWLY KsrU HUN - Vf J_ KWANOSI I N D I A TOK YL'. JAPAN ONTATION MAP COMMTTNTSM AND TSLA Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 -RDP78-0271R00t50051 GO-1"-1) ,HEt? ~'VGn~,,K CPYRGHT CPYGHT Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 RO00500570001-1 ISLAM AND ITS PEOPLE COAST0- GO\"CAMEROONS FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA AN 'Peace May Be. in Moslem Hands' CPYRGHT Proud, religious and nomadic, these people will judge us friends or foes by our works. B ETWEEN three and four hundred million of the world's inhabitants are Moslems, or adherents of Islam, the religion founded by the Prophet Mohammed in 622 in the heart of the_ Arabian desert, Whatever the racial and national differences between them, the Moslems form a more united religious body than do the followers of any other great religion. Their politi- cal importance in present-day world affairs can be -gauged from the fact alone. that it is they who inhabit Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Pakistan, Libya or Mo- rocco. The attitude of the Moslem countries toward the West might easily determine the future of every Ameri= can, Britisher or Frenchman. As Mar- shal Lyautey, the famous French ruler of Morocco, once said, "The Moslem world is like a resonant box. The faint- est sound in one corner of the box reverberates through_the whole of it." The recent moves against Tunisian na- tionalist leaders by the French had te- percussions in all the Moslem countries. These Moslem communities are by no means confined to the Arab countries. Besides the whole of North Africa and the Middle East, they also inhabit the. Dutch East Indies, count 25 mil- lion adherents in Soviet Russia, the same number in China, and form large minorities in countries as far apart as the Philippines and Liberia, Yugoslavia and Madagascar, Greece, Senegal and the Congo. And so today the Moslem is America's potential friend or foe in many of the strategically most vital areas. World peace may well be in Moslem hands. I WAS the guest some years back of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, un- doubtedly the most forceful ruler in the Arab world, and dined with him and RELIGION-='Moslem theology leaves no] ROM LANDAU,.author of several books on CPYRGHT ~~NDON E'i1A four hundred million Moslems inhabit many of the world's most strategic areas., ADEN BR. SOMALILAND NT. SOMALILAND ETHIOPIA -KENYA By ROM LANDAU CP.YRGHT, few court officials. All the other eats were the King's own soldigrs, rce-looking men of the desert with he, catlike, bodies, and the hostile aptomatically foeman. I doubt whether al single one among them could either ad or write. Yet they were uncowed b the distinguished company, and tfere was no shadow of discrimination the degree of hospitality they unself- ,ve furnished countless examples of t~is democratic freedom of association great and lowly. Servant or chauf- ur, grocer or tailor, guest or host ared the meal as by natural right. sts that men are equal and "all s or censorable states but have been urse, to equate the Moslem notion of emocracy with our own; but to the re unquestionably faithful. And herein God's omnipotence and man's prime uty of submission are taken for grant- d. Mohammed never preached ab- lute pre-destination which would de- troy human freedom. Nevertheless, o accept the Turkish philosophy of ismet (fate) and the Arab Maktub it is written in the holy book). This eviation from the Koran-traceable to fferences of opinion between Moslem sort5bto`t`o~ -~ CPYRGHT complaint; it takes the sting out of his envy or jealousy; it gives him added strength when he pursues a cause in' which he believes, and which he can identify with the will of God. But it also serves as an excuse for laziness or inefficiency, and explains away fail- ure or injustice. .. If it were not'for this fatalism, many of the blemishes that are so noticeable in more than one Moslem country- economic inequality, corruption, social backwardness-would have been swept away-by the sufferers themselves, and social revolutions would have brought the misrule of rapacious landlords and officials to an end. t-ha very -.dst ence of these exploiters of native igno- rance and submission is a paradox in, communities where religion preaches equality and charity, and merely proves that even a creed as realistic as Islam has no infallible safeguard against hu- man imperfection. s * a IT is no longer sufficient. as it would have been nineteen hundred years back. to describe a man as "a Chris.- tian,' nd; in so doing, define him. The statement "He is a Moslem" is far more complete, for it declares that the man in question shares not only certain spiritual and moral ideals but also many of the fundamental habits and customs in his daily life, with millions of co-religionists. Many a professed Christian is little more than an atheist; but the hold of Islam is secure, in urban and rural areas alike, among in- tellectuals and illiterate, rich and poor. This is because their religion pro- vides the ground upon which they stand and the roof that: gives them shelter. Consequently the' materialistic doctrines of communism have made lit- tle headway in their midst.. It is not ac- cidental that communism is finding far more ad- (Continued on Page 28) place r a new set o standa;XPPf0V ~Qrf~e,l~t~eegOF@!f?8?~ CIA-R 14 THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CPYRGHT CPYRGHT Approved For Release 2000/08/27 CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 The Lessons of April 6, 1917 "T marked beginning of 1917 was marked by three stupendous events: the German declaration of unlimited U-boat was. the interven- tion of the United States, and the Rus- sian Revolution. Taken together these events constitute the second great cli- max of the war." So wrote Winston Churchill in 1927; we can see now, in the perspective of another quarter cen- tury, that these events marked not merely a climax of the war but---to use another Churchillian phrase--one of the great climacterics of history. It was the first decisive intervention of the United States in world affairs, the first time that the New World was to step forth, "with all its power and might, to the rescue and liberation of the Old." But it was more than this. It was the end of American isolation. That isolation had. been a very real thing, especially in the nineteenth cen- tury. To Americans, independence was more than a break with the mother country, a disruption of the Old Empire and establishment of a new na- tion. It was a symbolical act of release from all that the Old World represented -from political oppression, from kings and aristocracies, from the tyranny of class over class, from an established church and a standing army. It was order, a new society and economy and politics, even a new moral order. The United States was to embark upon an experiment new to history-an experi- ment in making government for men, not men for government, an experi- ment in liberty and equality. AFTER the peace of 1815 it was possible for Americans to cultivate their own affairs free from the vexations of European politics and wars. The Mon- roe Doctrine proclaimed the new rela- tionship between America and Europe: let Europe tend to her own affairs and let us tend to ours. So it was under- stood by the man on the farm and in the bti eel, and Americans turned en- ergetically to the cultivation of their own affairs, turned westward, turned to the creation of an American na- tionalism. Actually it was quite im- possible to separate the New World from the Old, what with millions of immigrants pouring into the country, what with the intimate economic ties and the intimate cultural ties, what with the same body of traditions and values. Actually the Atlantic com- munity persisted all through the cen- tury; but this great truth was not understood or appreciated. It was the century of "splendid isolation." "Our relations with foreign nations today fill but a slight place in Ameri- can politics and excite generally only a languid interest." So wrote Henry Cabot Lodge in 1889. Even as he was writing, isolation began. to evaporate. It was in the Eighteen Nineties that the United States began to emerge as a world power. The Spanish War dra- matically ended one century-old empire and ushered in another. America turned to the Pacific, to Hawaii and the -Philippines, and to China; the Open Door was added to the Monroe Doctrine as one of the cornerstones of American HENRY STEELE COMMAGER is of American History at Columbia U v s?yy.V Thirty-five years ago we ended isolationism and began to re-create the Atlantic community. CPYRGHT By HENRY STEELE COMMAGER foreign policy. America turned to Europe, and her voice was heard in the councils of the Old World. LL this came to a climax during the first World War. "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war," said President Wilson; he had put it off as long as he could, so he thought. This fateful step, the dec- laration of war on April 6, 1917, was the beginning of those decades of conflict which were to shift the center of power from the Old World to the New, which were to engage the whole Western world-perhaps the whole globe--in kaleidoscopic rearrangements of peoples, regroupings of power, re- organizations of national and interna- tional systems. The real beginnings had come, of course, in 1914, but who can doubt now that the distinctive and decisive fact of the great war was the entry of the.United States? The year 1917 mbrked too the be- ginning of that re-creation of the At- lantic community which had been a very real thing in the eighteenth cen- tury and which had been forgotten or ignored in the nineteenth. The rescue of Britain and France was not an ex- plicit war aim in 1917, but no one who CPYRGHT studies the drift of public opinion itur- tng the early years of the war can doubt for a moment that it was a de- cisive consideration. For it was clear ould not tolerate a hostile power on ould not stand idly by while Britain nd France went under. The comlmu- ity of thought, of values, of interests. hich allied the United States with the astern European peoples twice in a eneration, was a most fundamental ping. In one sense, then-perhaps a ymbolical one--the creation of NATO nay be regarded as the most sigriifi- ant thing to come out of those years f conflict. And the Atlantic com.mu- hinkable without the United States. T would be an exaggeration to sug- est that Americans generally under- tood what was involved in the great ecision of 1917, The formal cause of he war was unrestricted- U-boat war- are; the objectives of the war, as Wil- on saw them, were democracy, free- om, self-determination, and a world rganization for peace. "The right is ore precious than peace, and we shall ight for those things which we have sways carried nearest our hearts, for emocracy, for the right of those who ubmit to authority to have a voice in heir own government, for the rights rid liberties of small nations, for a uni- ersal dominion of right * * *." Even ilson, for all his insight and histori- al perspective, probably did not fully nderstand what was involved in the merican entry into the war. The election of 1920 and the repudi- tion of the League and the World ourt dramatized the unwillingness of mericans of that generation to ac- ept their new role as a world power. After the first bold step to the res- -ue and liberation of the Atlantic com- nunity there was a withdrawal into solation. This withdrawal never went o far in fact as it did in psychology nd sentiment. Yet it was a very real hing, and portentous for history. It ersisted well into the Nineteen T'hir- ies and to the eve of World War II; t has not yet wholly vanished. It is important, therefore, that we ,onsider the reasons for the withdrawal nto isolation in the Nineteen Twenties nd Nineteen Thirties, the character nd consequences of that withdrawal. It is important that we do this in or- er that we may avoid in the future he errors of the past. WE can distinguish four Major auses or influences which persuaded Americans to withdraw from the re- ponsibilities of world power. There as the deeply ingrained isolationist entiment; there was disillusionment with the results of the war; there was he myth of American war guilt, and here was the impractical and over- ambitious nature of the new interna- tional order. Let us look briefly at each of these. The first needs little elaboration. solationism was not to be overcome by a single venture into the world n t was too deeply ingrained for - he (Continued on Page 36) ed For Releases 2000/98/27 foClA-RDP7 e0r 771 R00050057p 13 APRIL 6. 1952 Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 CPYRGHT 'Peace May Be in Moslem Hands' (Continued from Page 14) herents in Hindu India than in Moslem Pakistan, among the Indo-Chinese than among the Moroccans and Tunisians who share the same basic griev- ances. There is no place in a Mos- lem's life for a new set of dog- mas or regulations. His stand- ards of personal cleanliness and hygiene, his daily diet and his fasting, his dress and man- ner of speech, his literary style and his codes of hospi- tality, his education, his inher- itance-and-divorce laws, his- income-tax procedures, the way he sits and eats, his at- titude toward his parents and children-for any of these the holy book of the Koran gives definite instructions. 1FTER 1,300 years it would be understandable if the reli- gious origins of these instruc- tions were forgotten; yet in actual fact it is not so. And it is precisely because he is always conscious of those sanctions that the Moslem abides by these decrees with a living awareness which many people of other religions have lost. No amount of dialectical- materialistic 'propaganda will convince the Moslem that to offer protection to a stranger, to distribute part of his in- come to the poor, to eat with but three fingers of the right hand are outmoded procedures. Whereas Islam is the domi- nant influence in a Moslem's life, it is by no means the only one. Islam was born in the desert and under a scorching sun, and the original Moslem was a son of that very desert that is so vividly reflected in. the Koran. His blood was quick with the heat of Ara- bian sands, and it throbbed with the restlessness of one born to a nomadic life. Both as a son of the desert and as a nomad, the Moslem is by nature suspicious, hardy and frugal; and because of the poverty that has marked most of his history, he is easily be- wildered when riches fall into his lap. Like a child, he then throws caution to the winds Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 and seeks all the luxuries that have enlivened his dreams. Yet, as a nomad, he is essen- tially a "man of the tent" who calls no piece of land his own and pitches his home any- where where there is some verdure for his sheep or cam- els. Thus he does not share the westerner's attachment to property, to permanence, or even to economic security and lives for the day rather than the morrow. He easily becomes excited, and the border line between an innate reticence and a tend- ency to violence is indistinct. His background and the cli- matic extremes to which he is inured help to make of him a man of extremes : supremely courteous but also given to cupidity or cruelty unmatched in the West. THE saintliness and asceti- cism of the Moslem Sufi mystic belong as much to the world of Islam as do the gross material pleasures and the promiscuity of Moslem volup- tuaries. It must not be for- gotten that a characteristic of the Prophet's paradise is marked by a vividly sensual imaginativeness. Because he is used to extremes rather than to the Golden Mean of the ancient Greeks, the Mos- lem finds nothing particularly reprehensible in the co-exist- ence of extremes of wealth and poverty. Indeed, they are of Allah's ordinance; and this degree of complacency makes him an easy prey of the rapacity of greedy pashas and effendis. L many ways the Moslem resembles the man of the Italian Renaissance, in whose life violence, cruelty and de- bauchery went hand in hand with artistic refinement intel- orker. lectual pursuits and even spir- injunctions safeguarding di- itual exaltation. The sublime vorced women are somewhat poems of the Sufis, the ex- half-hearted. quisite miniatures of the Per- Many of the Koran's in- sians. the subtle intricacies of -"junctions are inspired by the Moorish arabesques have all grown from the same soil that produced a Moulay Ismail, that seventeenth century Sul- tan of Morocco who with his own hand chopped off more heads than all the executioners of the French Revolution. The question of the Moslem's acceptance of polygamy is a stumbling-block to many Westerners. Unfortunately, the Prophet Mohammed's teach- ings on this matter have usu- ally been misrepresented. In actual fact he limited the highly polygamous man of his day to four wives, being re- alistically aware of their clam- orously sensual nature, He made divorce easy" for the Moslem male; and there is no gainsaying that even his Prophet's longing for social justice. "Unto your parents show kindness" it says, "and unto kindred and orphans and the needy, and unto thy neigh- bor who is a kin and the neighbor who is a stranger." Almsgiving, which forms the third of the five acts of reli- gious worship imposed by the Koran, is a duty accepted by even those Moslems who are prone to disregard some of the other four acts of worship, such as the obligation to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, to say the five daily prayers, or to fast during the month of Ramadhan. Practically all Moslems are addicted to word-spinning and the telling of tales. 'Much of Islam's literature, both secu- Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 HARVEY'S "BRISTOL CREAM" SHERRY The world's greatestluxury Sherry.. A full, SHERRY A rich tasting Wine similar -in style to Bristol Cream. This is the HARVEY'S "BRISTOL DRY" SHERRY A superlative tasting dry Sherry in the minm quality: Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 and religious-in fact the gran itself-has been trans-. tted by word of mouth. As e all know, the spoken word not call for the same nciseness and discipline of ought as the written. Another Moslem attitude at often exasperates the for gner is addiction to com- licated argument, to the am- I ivalent reply that seems to y either far more or far less it is meant to do. In most oslem countries people have 1 the time in the world and sure for long-winded talk d complicated processes of ought. A clear and direct pproach to any given prob- m is almost impossible to em. This, however, need not ply that they wish to de- ve or be untruthful. And in their enjoyment of argu- ent and the matching of wits ems their passion for bar- aining, both in political and business dealings.: T -is impossible to under- and the Moslem without ac- owledging his unworldly at- 'tude to time. Whether he be Persian, an Egyptian or a ian, time in the Western ense means nothing to him. ince both measurable time d the outcome of all human trivings in time are God's, it ould be foolish to become a I ave to chronometers. On in- umerable occasions my Mos- m friends have kept me wait- u; for anything from one hour o several days. We may have had an appointment for Mon- day and they would arrive on Thursday, seemingly hardly conscious of their unpunctual- ity. At the same time they would have found it perfectly natural 'if, instead of waiting, I myself had departed; they would certainly not have re- sented the necessity of calling on. me again and again. AS so many of the funda- mental conceptions of the Westerner and the Moslem are at such variance, it is surpris- ing that mutual relations are not even more unsatisfactory. But real improvement must depend on our efforts rather than on his; for we are better educated, more widely trav- eled, and have a greater.scien- tific training-which should enable us to study others dis- passionately. It is unreasonable to expect a political leader of the -Mos- lems to possess the American equipment for his job; for vel- vet-gloved or iron-handed for- eign domination has condi- tioned his whole life. And his newly won independence has been an intoxicant to him; We must remember that in his own country he deals with communities that are morbidly suspicious of any move of the Western powers, and terrified that they may again be de- prived of their independence. We forget that most Moslems are pronounced individualists, and that in Moslem countries personalities count for infi- nitely more than principles or doctrines. Hence the extreme' importance of personal jealous- ies and vendettas that affect so strongly the political con- duct of Moslem powers. LONG centuries of colorful history the Moslem may well boast; but in terms of modern politics they are inevitably still minors, and may have to learn a good deal from the West. But we, on the other hand, can learn from them: their patience and sobriety, their courage in adversity, their complete lack of= self- righteousness and their obedi- ence to religious principles. The "clean-sweep" approach will get us nowhere. Only by our works will they know and judge us, and, finally, decide whether to be our friends or our foes. Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 CPYRGHT Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 CPYRGHT CPYRGHT Missions to Man The U. N.'s technical assistance program is taking on world scope. O N the twenty-fifth floor of the East River head- quarters of the United Nations is located a prosaic suite of offices. Few visitors come there. The atmosphere is quiet. Nothing about the place suggests that it is the hub of a network spanning the globe and seeking daily to Improve the lives of millions -sheepherders in Afghanis- tan, weavers in the Philip- pines, farmers in Pakistan - or that it symbolizes more op- timism tor mankind than any of the well-publicized sessions to date of the General Assem- bly, including the one lately ad- journed at Paris. But it'does. These offices are the home of the Technical Assistance Administration, set up by the U. N. to provide aid for un- derprivileged areas. Its direc- tor general is Hugh L. Keen- leyside, a Canadian. Its an- nual budget of $6,000,000 is supplemented by voluntary contributions from member governments, totaling about $20,000,000 a year. This sum pays the foreign-travel ex- penses and the salaries of scientists and technicians from thirty-four nations. Lo- cal Governments pay the costs of any approved project, and domestic travel costs. Every U. N. delegate under- stands the functions of this organization, if not its poten- tialities. To the rest of the. world, it is only a bravely' idealistic plan. Yet its effec- tiveness even now could shake those critics who assert that the U. N. has not justified its existence through any con- structive advances for hu- manity. THE files in these rooms are refutation enough. They are the reception center for a con- stantly accelerating flow of reports from remote regions. Each of them documents the advances or frustrations of man's fight against disease, il- literacy, drought, abnormal climate or the unproductivity of the soil. The reports come from missions to specific Gov . ernments on problems involv- ing health, living standards or happiness of entire popula- tions or segments thereof. They are terse and factual, written in technical phrase- rough. Only scrutiny re- ese undramatic pages. At intervals some scientist r engineer turns up at head- uarters after months in the eld. Then the picture comes ories are told - not to a a group of staff employes. e press generally seems to frequently solitary, workers in the far places. Lack of exploitation has left untold, for instance, the chapter on the resuscitation of the weaving industry in the Philippines, through, the in- genuity and experience of two American women cooperating with the Government there. One of them suggested the addition of eight inches to the looms in use there, providing wider yardages in the produc- tion of upholstery weaves Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500570001 -1 which are now finding a ready outlet through Filipino furni- ture factories. The cost was two pesos (about $1 Ameri- can) per loom. Such wider yardages are preferred every- where by professional design- ers. The Technical Assistance Administration is based on the principle of reciprocity. Today's borrower of skills from "the common cupboard" may be tomorrow's lender. Sensitive smaller nations especially appreciate this. Sometimes exchanges are ex- clusively between or among themselves. THERE was the case of St. Lucia, in the British Wind- ward Isles, and its boiling vol- canic springs. Officials there sought information about the possibility of harnessing this vast accumulation of steam to make electric power. A cross- check revealed only two coun=tries with experience in this field-Italy and Iceland. De- tails were sent to St. Lucia. Back came a request for the services of someone who knew how Iceland had direct- ed its steaming geysers into commercial channels. An Ice- landic technician is now there on a preliminary survey. International teams com- prising T. A. A. technicians and local workers who learn as they operate, have accom- (Continued on Following Page) CRGHI NOMADISM-"The original Moslem was a son of the desert, born in the sands and under a scorching sun. His blood throbbed with the restlessness of nomadic life." NATIONALISM-"Newly won independence hat been an intoxicant. Moslems are POVERTY-"Extremes of poverty co-existing with extreme riches are Allah's ordinance? terrified they may again be deprived and morbidly suspicious of any move by the West." Man's prime duty of submission to adversity without complaint is taken for granted."' 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