“We have lists before us of 550 villages whose surviving inhabitants were converted to Islam with fire and sword; of 568 churches thoroughly pillaged, destroyed and razed to the ground; of 282 Christian churches transformed into mosques; of 21 Protestant preachers and 170 Gregorian (Armenian) who were, after enduring unspeakable tortures, murdered after their refusal to accept Islam. We repeat, however, that these figures reach only to the extent of our information, and do not by a long way reach to the extent of the reality. Is this a religious persecution or is it not?” Christianity, then, has been cleaned out of North Africa and the old Byzantine Empire, the home of the early Fathers of the Church and of the Seven Cities, largely by massacre; the Turk, when he burned Smyrna and made Asia Minor solidly Mohammedan, finished a work that has been going on for centuries. Not only have these methods been used for propagating Mohammedanism, but the “Law of Apostates” prescribes death, forced separation from wife and family, and loss of property and legal rights for any Moslem who forsakes his faith and adheres to another. The fear of these dreadful punishments is one of the reasons why there are so few converts from Mohammedanism to Christianity. Doctor Samuel M. Zwemmer, the learned writer on Mohammedan matters, gives many examples of the application of this law in his recent work, _The Law of Apostasy in Islam_. An example which came within my personal observation, the murder of the convert of the International College at Smyrna, has already been referred to. This is probably the same case as that cited by the Reverend Ralph Harlow, one time pastor of the International College at Smyrna, in a pamphlet: “Outside the Walls of Smyrna his body was found, stabbed in many places.” The Law of Apostasy, according to Zwemmer, is summed up by the Mohammedan law-givers in the following words: “As for Apostates, it is permitted to kill them by facing them or coming upon them from behind, just as in the case of Polytheists. Secondly, their blood, if shed, brings no vengeance. Thirdly, their property is the spoil of true believers. Fourthly, their marriage ties become null and void.” The educated, Europeanized Turk of Constantinople is a shrewd and polished gentleman of seductive manners; but one thing must never be forgotten by those interested, financially or otherwise, in the future of Turkey; that country has been made “homogeneous” by a series of ferocious massacres carefully planned and relentlessly carried out by just such polished and seductive gentlemen, who have exploited Moslem fanaticism for their purposes, and it is on that fanaticism that their power rests. CHAPTER XXXVI THE “50-50” THEORY