This is amazing. And even more amazing is that this hasn't been published long before now.
CHURCHILL ON ISLAM
Unbelievable, but the speech below was written in 1899! (check Wikipedia - The River War)
I am sending the attached short speech from Winston Churchill, delivered by him in 1899 when he was a young soldier and journalist. It probably sets out the current views of many but expressed in the wonderful Churchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language, of which he was a past master. Sir Winston Churchill was, without doubt, one of the greatest men of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
He was a brave young soldier, a brilliant journalist, an extraordinary politician and statesman, a great war leader and Prime Minister, to whom the Western world must be forever in his debt. He was a prophet in his own time; He died on 24 January 1965, at the grand old age of 90 and, after a lifetime of service to his country, was accorded a State funeral.
HERE IS THE SPEECH:
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
Sir Winston Churchill; (Source: The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 London )
Churchill saw it coming...............
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Sad that out of all the wonderful things said by this great man, you should pick one of the worst. In the same piece, Churchill criticized Kitchener's murder of wounded Sudanese soldiers and the desecration of the Mahdi's tomb. Churchill certainly had his human side and his racist side. The racist said hated Mahatma Ghandi and black people whom he referred to using the "n" word. Right wing racists often drag out the 19th century statements of Churchill, while ignoring his more 20th century views. He was a man of the 19th century with all the good and bad that brings. Nothing is uglier than his racist and religiously intolerant views. Nothing is more noble than his views of humanity and magnanimity in victory. As racist and an intolerant he could be of those who were not of his color or religion, he was also appalled when so called "white Christians" acted in barbaric ways towards anyone of any color or religion, as he was appalled in the "River War" at Kitchener's murder of wounded Sudanese soldiers who were fighting (now using my words, not Churchill's) for their independence from a usurping imperialist power. Churchill, who was a child of the Empire never understood how much colonies want to be free, even if the people in them are non-white and non-Christian. Remember, we also fought against British domination. I say this as a complete Anglophile who also understands the need to throw off imperial domination.
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