Short stories, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
"Like dogs they ran! With our own eyes we have seen it, praise be to
Allah! Death to the infidel!"
"Now see the soldiers of the Prophet, the victorious army of the
Sultan, destroying the Christian mosques in the conquered country!"
announced the showman, in a voice of triumph.
On the wall was thrown the picture of a Belgian village church. German
soldiers were busy about it. Then volumes of smoke began to issue from
the windows, tongues of flame. The roof fell in. The church was reduced
to a ruin.
"Behold! Ye see with your own eyes!"
"We see, we see! God is great! Unto Him be the praise!" came the reply
from the spectators.
"Now see others!" cried the German. "This is the work of the Sultan's
armies--will ye now doubt that he has set his face against the
Christian infidels?"
Picture after picture of ruined and desolated churches followed upon
the wall. The German authorities had evidently prepared a special film
of them. Cries of wild approbation broke from the fanatical tribesmen,
the mullahs loudest.
"Once more, O people, look upon the English prisoners, whose lives
have been spared because they have embraced the true faith, being led
through the Sultan's capital!"
A film of a few British prisoners from Gallipoli being marched through
the streets of Constantinople was then shown, amid shouts of applause.
The picture was taken off, but the beam of light still blazed across
the room. The German placed himself full in it.
"Ye have seen with your own eyes, O warriors of the hills! Praise be
to Allah for His mercies! Ye will no longer doubt. In the name of the
Prophet, the Sultan Willem, the protector of Islam, commands that ye
rise up and sweep beyond the Indus. Everywhere the power of the English
is broken. With your own eyes ye have seen it. Only on your borders do
they still keep up a vain show. Rise up, O children of the Prophet, and
sweep these dogs of infidels into the sea! The rich lands of India and
much loot will be the reward of your valour. Paradise awaits those who
fall in the sacred fight! The green banner of Islam shall wave over the
entire earth, for there is no God but God, Mohammed is His Prophet, and
the Sultan Willem is His chosen instrument!"
Karl Schultz felt an inward glow of triumph at his own histrionic power
as, his words ringing sonorously through the stone apartment, he stood
in the full blaze of light and raised his arm. It evoked loud shouts
of fanatic frenzy from the excited assembly. They clamoured to be led
against the infidel there and now. He kept his arm outstretched as
though to still the tumult, as though his discourse were yet unfinished.
But the cries would not cease. "Great is Allah! Death to the infidel!
Death! Allah! Allah! There is no God but God! Allah! Allah! Allah!
Death to the infidel--death!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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