When Turkey went to war against the Allies in 1914, the most dreaded weapon in her armory was the threat of the Jehad or Holy War—power to declare which was vested in the office of the Califate. Dutifully the Calif pushed the button. Nothing much happened. The Jehad did not prevent the British Moslems and the French North African troops from fighting against the Central Powers, nor did it hold back the Arabs from declaring their independence and fighting as Allies of the British in Palestine. The Jehad proved to be a “dud” shell; but when the Grand National Assembly at Angora abolished the Califate and sent the Calif, Abdul Medjid, to Switzerland in exile (TIME, March 10), the dud proved to be a bomb. The reverberations of the explosion still resound throughout all Christendom as well as the Moslem world.
In Turkey, Mustapha Kemal Pasha last week announced that the Califate henceforth will be personified by the Turkish Parliament. London opinion” promptly accused Kemal of “desiring to set himself up as Sultan of the world’s 220,000,000 Moslems.”
From his asylum in Territet, Switzerland, the deposed Calif, Abdul Medjid issued a call to the Moslem population of the world to determine through their respective leaders what should be done with the Califate considering his exile. Said he: “My deposition and the abolition of the Califate is fundamentally sacrilegious and void!”
In Italy it was reported that the Mussolini Government has invited Abdul Medjid to reside in Italy or in an Italian possession in Africa. Should Abdul Medjid be upheld as Calif and accept this offer, it would give the Italians much of the moral power of a second Vatican, consolidating her Mediterranean position between Europe’s Catholics and Africa’s Moslems, and being of immediate advantage in her relations with the turbulent Senussi sect in his Tripoli possessions.
In France the acidity of feeling was accentuated by the fact that the Sultan of Morocco, who is amenable to French influence and who has never recognized the Califate of Constantinople, would be a candidate for the position of Calif, and could be relied upon to strengthen French prestige in Tunis, Algiers and Morocco, as well as in the Near East.
In Great Britain the Government of Ramsay MacDonald is officially standing aloof from the question. British Moslem possessions are so diversified as to share all dissensions in Moslem theology. However, it is generally felt that the quick action of setting up King Hussein Ibn Ali . of the Hedjaz as the first claimant to the Califate will have only one beneficiary, the British Empire.
King Hussein of the Hedjaz, with-in whose realm lie the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, last week accepted the office of Calif tendered him by the Arabs of the Hedjaz, Transjordania and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. In an interview he showed himself melancholy and foreboding over the consequences of his action. Said Hussein: “I have not sought or desired the Califate. It has been thrust upon me. From everywhere they come to me and say:
” ‘Islam must have a Calif to protect it, and the Califate must not die out. You are the only prince competent to fill it. You are the independent ruler of a great Mosjem and Arab state. In your charge are the holy cities. You are of the tribe of Koreish. Your orthodoxy and zeal for the faith are beyond all question. You are an Arab of Arabs!’
“If I had not accepted I would have failed in my duty and my people would have turned against me. The Arabs of Hedjaz, Trans jordania and Palestine have proclaimed me Calif. I do not know what the rest of the Moslem world will do. I hear rumors that the King of Egypt or the Emir of Afghanistan or the Sultan of Morocco may proclaim themselves Califs. My position is very critical.”
In Afghanistan. That the British Moslems will be satisfied with neither the Turkish Parliament nor a British protege as Calif is reported from London. The British Government has been privately informed that the 70,000,000 Indian Moslems refuse to accept King Hussein. This refusal is formidable because it carries the threat that if Hussein is backed by the British, the Indian Moslems will support the candidacy of the Emir of Afghanistan, who is increasingly anti-British.
