When opportunity arose every liberal tendency was stamped out , and orthodoxy ruled alone and supreme for centuries over a people who drifted into decay and mental torpor .sx Liberalism has never been of the essence of Islam .sx It did not spring from the desert of Arabia but was one of the many enrichments that came to Islam from contact with other lands .sx We see , therefore , that though Islam by itself has never shown any powers or capacity for progress in either social welfare or intellectual research , it has always been susceptible to change as it has been affected by outside influences .sx This is perhaps best exemplified by a picture of Islam to-day .sx Let us imagine a village in Egypt .sx A peasant lives in a mud-built house where filth and dirt abound and comfort is almost non-existent .sx There are two boys in the family who for a time attend the local vernacular school , where they memorize parts of the Koran and learn to read and write .sx Islam dominates the family life and no outside influences disturb seriously the even tenor of habit and custom .sx The father one day decides to send his boys to Cairo for their education .sx The elder boy appears to have brains and is destined for a government school where he will eventually take a certificate and find a post in a government office as a clerk .sx This the father regards as an investment .sx He spends money on the lad so that in his old age when the lad is earning a salary he may live with him or upon him .sx The other boy , keeping up a family tradition , is sent to the Azhar University to be trained as a religious sheikh .sx These two boys , both astride the same donkey , make their way one morning to the nearest railway station .sx On arrival in Cairo they part , the one to study his faith and the other to learn all that the West can give in a school where the atmosphere is largely English and the teaching both modern and western .sx If we can picture these same boys meeting again in the old home and the clash of views and outlook that is inevitable we shall get some idea of the widening gulfbetween the orthodox conservatives who are the defenders of the faith and the modern youth who seek for progress and reform .sx What happens in a single home is also taking place in the whole life of the nation and of many nations in the Moslem world .sx The clash of ideas presents a vivid contrast , in the present generation , between a seventh-century religious belief and a twentieth-century thought and culture .sx The weak spots in Islam appear , and desperate efforts are made to repair the breaches , and , it must be admitted , mainly with cement from a western factory .sx A notable example of this was seen in the ferment caused by the publication in 1926 of Dr Taha Hussein's book on pre-Islamic poetry .sx Dr Taha was Professor of Arabic in the Egyptian university at Cairo , and no subject seemed more harmless than that of Arab poetry .sx But Dr Taha succeeded in thoroughly annoying the orthodox party by his critical method of dealing with his subject , by some of his conclusions which were contrary to the cherished belief of Moslem leaders , and perhaps most of all by his disagreement with the religious ideas of the Azhar University .sx Dr Taha set out to study facts by a scientific investigation and to follow truth wherever it might lead him .sx He attacked the methods of study adopted generally by Moslem leaders because they subordinated scientific inquiry to religious prejudice .sx " We could believe and be content , " he said , " had God endowed us with mental laziness which makes people cling to the old and to avoid the new .sx " He will have nothing to do with the inertia of a dull orthodoxy , and he calls the youth of his country to search and inquire , to doubt and to probe .sx That he owes his inspiration to European influence is made abundantly clear .sx " If there are in Egypt to-day some who champion the old and others who champion the new , then it is because of the fact that in Egypt some persons' minds have been coloured by this western colouring , whilst others have got none of it , or very little of it .sx " The reason why a book on ancient poetry disturbed the faithful was because its conclusions undermined the position given to the language of the Koran as the most beautiful and correct Arabic in the world .sx Dr Taha showed that similar poetry of equal beauty existed in Arabia before the time of Mohammed .sx Again the book angered Moslems by showing that much of the supposed pre-Moslem poetry was " merely concocted and forged after the appearance of Islam to establish the authenticity of the prophetship ( of Mohammed ) and the truth of the Prophet " by showing that Jewish rabbis and Christian monks were expecting the coming of a prophet who would appear in Mecca .sx This volume was no sooner published than a controversy arose which nearly produced a parliamentary crisis in Egypt in 1926 .sx All copies of the book were bought up and destroyed and the matter was brought before the Egyptian parliament .sx One speaker reminded the House that the penalty laid down in the Koran for certain religious of-fences was stoning , and a resolution was brought forward demanding the immediate dismissal of Dr Taha from the state university , and that the government should institute proceedings in the courts against him .sx The resolution was finally withdrawn after the prime minister had made it a matter of confidence in the government .sx This little book and the storm it created will help to show the cleavage between the old Islamic party and the new thought that is so apparent to-day .sx It is , as we have seen , by no means confined to Egypt ; in every Moslem land there is in varying degrees a similar struggle for religious liberty and freedom .sx The orthodox are straining every nerve to check heresy , and the liberal youth of Islam are determined to win the day .sx Mohammedan lands have been invaded by the traveller , the tourist , the trader , the missionary and the ambassadors of western nations .sx This has led to the opening up ofhitherto inaccessible lands .sx Railways , motor roads , steam-ships and other means of transport have made travel easy .sx This has not only increased the tourist traffic ; it has afforded new facilities for Moslems to travel , and while the Moslem East has been invaded by the globe-trotter , the West has witnessed a strange influx of dusky-skinned men from Moslem lands .sx They have met traders in their own land and have carried their trade into all the capitals of Europe .sx Their sons have found their way into most of the universities of the West , and wealthier Moslems have made a practice of spending the summer in Europe in exactly the same way as Europeans have wintered in Cairo or Jerusalem .sx The turning to Mecca in prayer was a symbolic act , designed to fix the mind on Mecca , but to-day more Moslems visit Europe annually than go to Mecca , and the educated classes are now looking to the West for inspiration , guidance and education .sx During the past fifty years there has been a general awakening throughout Islam to the need of education .sx As Moslem countries have been brought into contact with European life they have realized the immense differences which separate their people from those of the West .sx The complete dependence of the Moslem world on Europe for machinery , industrial and agricultural , has opened the eyes of many to the backwardness of their own lands .sx The result has been that every Moslem country has sought to develop a new educational system .sx Even the most backward races have awakened , and where a couple of generations ago education was despised and considered unnecessary , to-day we find national systems and schools provided by law and supported from state funds .sx The remarkable thing is that in almost every case these new systems are modelled on the European plan .sx Where Moslem countries have been under the " protection " of a European power , education has developed at a much greater rate than in purely Islamic states .sx Thus Islam , after making its impact on the non-Arab world , has .sx reached the position where it in turn is being influenced , and in many ways completely changed , by western education and life .sx The first impacts of this modern movement tended to make the eastern people a dull copy of westerners , but Moslems are now alive to this danger , and they seek , while adopting western scientific methods , to recast them in eastern and Islamic moulds .sx European methods of education have , however , wrought great changes .sx The spirit of democracy to-day has come in from the West .sx The desire for an open mind in the pursuit of knowledge , the determination to test and prove things , and the willingness to accept ideas whether Koranic or not are gains of great value .sx The greatest gain , of course , has been the ever-increasing number of Moslems who can read and write .sx A new literacy has brought with it a fresh intelligence on many social problems in Islam .sx Superstition , prejudices , and intolerance are being superseded by a new knowledge of science , and with the growth of education comes the demand for facing social evils and for reforms on modern lines .sx Education has brought with it the study of foreign languages and increasingly is the literature of Europe open to the Moslem world .sx Students return to their home lands to translate the learning of the West into Arabic , thus widening still further the circle of occidental influence .sx The demand for literature is a natural outcome of the new literacy .sx The output is enormous .sx The bookshops that stock purely Islamic literature are relegated usually to back streets .sx and are small and insignificant .sx Those where the literature of all countries is supplied are large and flourishing establishments , and the European book-sellers say that their best customers are young Moslems !sx Journalism is of comparatively recent date , yet it is making rapid strides .sx The first newspaper appeared in Turkey in 1832 , but even in the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid newspapers from abroad were always censored before being delivered to their owners .sx Anything considered unfit for .sx Turkish eyes was blocked out with thick black bars .sx In 1860 there appeared the Terjumani-Ahval , the first news-paper of a modern movement which we have seen sweep away sultan , caliph , autocracy , Islamic law and a dozen ancient institutions .sx The victory of modernism in Turkey has in no small measure been due to the influence of the press .sx Women are making use of literature extensively in their propaganda , and in Persia at least three papers for the advocacy of women's rights are edited by women .sx Probably over ninety per cent of the Arabic-speaking world are still illiterate , and this fact might give the impression that literature can have little scope in lands where so small a proportion of the people can read , yet the influence of the press is out of all proportion to the literates in a country .sx The newspaper finds its way into every hamlet and village , and if no one else is available the local sheikh will always read aloud the news of the day , and before sunset the whole village is talking of the latest politics and of the doings of the great world beyond their horizon .sx About a hundred Arabic newspapers and journals are published in Egypt :sx in Syria and Palestine about sixty-five .sx The Moslem press issues magazines and journals of one sort or another in Paris , London , Leningrad , New York , and of course in every corner of Islamic lands .sx The press is the main channel for furthering throughout the world the revival of Islam that we have seen in Arabia and elsewhere .sx The advocates of pan-Islamism are seeking to reunite the broken fragments of the sultan's policy , and literature is being disseminated everywhere appealing to Moslems to stir themselves and to reunite in a new Islamic brotherhood that will demonstrate to the West the solidarity of Islam .sx From the press there are sounding forth two calls .sx The one comes from Turkey, , where the cry is " Onward and forward , nationalism and patriotism before Islamic solidarity .sx "