THE SECOND REVOLUTION IN TURKEY. [TO TRR EDITOR Or THE
"SDROTATOR."
81E� In your article on" The Second Revolution in Turkey" in the Spectator of April 17t11 the following passages Occur :— " True, or at any rate primitive, Mohammedanism and political progress have nothing in common. Indeed, they are essentially opposed."
"The Old Turk, or, rather, the Old Mohammedan, has no use whatever for a Parliament and a Coustitgtiou."
hope you will allow me to contradict emphatically these statements. I should have thought that the words used by the late Sheikh-ul-Islam to Sir Bampfylde Fuller at Con- stantinople, and the writings of Seyid Ameer Ali* and other leading Mohammedans, would have already made it clear that the work which is being carried out by the " Committee of Union and Progress " could not possibly be attempted if opposed to the true and original teaching of Islam. So far from the establishment of a Constitution being so opposed, the germs of a Parliament are to be found in the times of the Prophet himself (who was an ardent reformer) and the early Kbalifebs. We are thus not entirely indebted to Europe for this element of civilisation. It is true that Moslems do not desire to introduce Western civilisation in its entirety, but to adopt what is good and not incompatible with the essentials of their creed. Those in Western Europe who desire sincerely to further the progress of Turkey and to strengthen the bands of the "Young `Turks" should grasp the true situation in connexion with the very important question here touched upon.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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