Word: moslem
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ANOTHER assignment for this week's issue that was received with special enthusiasm was for the Religion story on Islam. Central to the story is the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca's holy places that for a devout Moslem is the ultimate in spiritual reward on this earth. One such devout Moslem is TIME'S veteran Cairo-based stringer Mohamed Wagdi, and for him the job was the opportunity of a lifetime-to make the hajj and report it. For the six weeks after he first made his application to go on last year's pilgrimage...
...number and variety of pilgrims on this year's hajj were living proof of the fervor that burns within the youngest of the world's universal faiths, second in size only to Christianity. According to Islam's mission-minded Ahmadiyya movement, there are 647 million Moslems around the world; less partial statisticians lower the figure to a still impressive 465 million. Today, 35 countries in Africa and Asia have Moslem majorities. In much of West Africa, Islam now gains converts at a 9-to-l ratio over Christianity...
...torch of Islamic empire-building passed in time from Arab to Seljuk to Mongol to Ottoman Turk. All the while, Islam was intellectually withdrawing from engagement with alien thought, under the influence of the mystical Sufis, and the orthodox ulama (scholars) who saw all wisdom in the Koran and Moslem tradition. By the 19th century, Islam was enfeebled in body as well as spirit; lands once ruled by Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent became European protectorates; Turkey, resident of the impotent caliphs, was the "sick man of Europe...
...even in the midst of decay the seeds of rebirth took root. As early as 1744 the fierce Wahhabi movement began preaching the need for a strict return to Islamic practice, and its doctrine slowly spread through the lands of the faith. Sharply countering Moslem fatalism, the 19th century philosopher Al Afghani preached ijtihad (self-exertion), urging Islam to adapt to the currents of change in the modern world. India's Ahmadiyya movement helped revive Islam's long-dormant lust for converts. Twentieth century nationalism gradually brought independence, and a new spirit of confidence, to Islamic countries...
...nation was rescued; but the nation, to Kemal's way of thinking, still had to be reconstructed. He went to work like a whirlwind. In short order, the Ottoman sultanate was abolished, the Moslem religion disestablished. The fez was outlawed, and the schools, the courts and the institution of marriage were freed from the control of the mullahs. Women won the right to vote, hold jobs, own property. Polygamy and the veil were eliminated. The alphabet was Romanized and names were Westernized-Mustafa Kemal took the opportunity to call himself Kemal Atatürk (Father of the Turks...