process, I believe your University will take an important part. When I
was recently in the Sudan I heard a vernacular proverb, based on a
text in the Koran, which is so apt that, although not an Arabic
scholar, I shall attempt to repeat it in Arabic: "_Allah ma el
saberin, izza sabaru_"--God is with the patient, _if they know how to
wait_.[6]
[6] This bit of Arabic, admirably pronounced by Mr. Roosevelt,
surprised and pleased the audience as much as his acquaintance
with the life and works of Ibn Batutu surprised and pleased the
sheiks at the Moslem University two days before. Both Mr.
Roosevelt's use of the Arabic tongue and his application of the
proverb were greeted with prolonged applause.--L.F.A.
One essential feature of this process must be a spirit which will
condemn every form of lawless evil, every form of envy and hatred,
and, above all, hatred based upon religion or race. All good men, all
the men of every nation whose respect is worth having, have been
inexpressibly shocked by the recent assassination of Boutros Pasha. It
was an even greater calamity for Egypt than it was a wrong to the
individual himself. The type of man which turns out an assassin is a
type possessing all the qualities most alien to good citizenship; the
type which produces poor soldiers in time of war and worse citizens in
time of peace. Such a man stands on a pinnacle of evil infamy; and
those who apologize for or condone his act, those who, by word or
deed, directly or indirectly, encourage such an act in advance, or
defend it afterwards, occupy the same bad eminence. It is of no
consequence whether the assassin be a Moslem or a Christian or a man
of no creed; whether the crime be committed in political strife or
industrial warfare; whether it be an act hired by a rich man or
performed by a poor man; whether it be committed under the pretence of
preserving order or the pretence of obtaining liberty. It is equally
abhorrent in the eyes of all decent men, and, in the long run, equally
damaging to the very cause to which the assassin professes to be
devoted.
Your University is a National University, and as such knows no creed.
This is as it should be. When I speak of equality between Moslem and
Christian, I speak as one who believes that where the Christian is
more powerful he should be scrupulous in doing justice to the Moslem,
exactly as under reverse conditions justice should be done by the
Moslem to the Christian. In my own country we have in the Philippines
Moslems as well as Christians. We do not tolerate for one moment any
oppression by the one or by the other, any discrimination by the
Government between them or failure to mete out the same justice to
each, treating each man on his worth as a man, and behaving towards
him as his conduct demands and deserves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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